Parque San Telmo

Parque San Telmo lies on the edge of Triana, on ground that was once shoreline and then port fringe before it became the first public garden in the city. The layout is simple: a central walk, benches, flower beds and tall Indian laurel trees that keep the whole square shaded for most of the day. At one end stands the Ermita de San Telmo, a small whitewashed chapel dedicated to the patron saint of sailors, a reminder of how close the sea once came to this part of town.

The two structures that give the park its character are the modernist kiosk, covered in tiles and one of the most photographed buildings in the city, and the bandstand, where the municipal band plays to an audience sitting around it. The park works as a link between the shops of Triana and the older quarter of Vegueta, and it sits directly beside the San Telmo bus interchange, one of the main transport hubs of the capital. Treat it as a short stop inside a longer walk through the historic centre rather than a destination on its own.