Madrid dreams of having its own monument-mirador, although it is not yet a question of whether it will be “the largest Ferris wheel in Europe”, as the council promised in March 2020, before the pandemic, the first time a project was discussed. The Almeida government has just gotten started. On August 19, the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility area awarded the contract for the preparation of a geotechnical study in order to “determine the opportunity of implementing a Ferris wheel in the Enrique Tierno Galván Park”, as announced by Cadena Ser Desarrollos Logísticos y Fomento de Suelo, SL-Delfos Proyectos SL will be in charge of carrying out these works, which will be carried out in three months and will have a total cost of 58,628.95 euros.
Sources from the area led by Borja Carabante detailed to this newspaper that the project is still in a very nascent phase, since they do not even know if the land will be adequate to house an infrastructure of this type or if they will have to evaluate other alternatives. Nor if they will finally build a Ferris wheel or another type of monumental viewpoint.
“It’s too early to say whether it will finally be launched. We are doing a technical analysis because we understand that it could be useful to regenerate an area that, in some respects, is deteriorated. It could be a attractive point for the city “It’s not going to be a good idea for Madrid, but it’s also going to improve the neighborhood, so the neighbors have to be calm,” said Inma Sanz, spokesperson for the municipal executive, at an event yesterday in the Latina neighborhood.
A European giant
When asked if this was a project proposed by an external agent or if it was an idea from the City Hall, she explained that it was only “under evaluation” and that she understood that it could “be positive for the city to have a point of view”. recognizable attraction as This is happening in other European cities“.
In fact, in 2020, the intention of the executive, as announced by Begoña Villacís, then deputy mayor, was to recover the project to build the “largest Ferris wheel on the continent” after the developer Circle View gave up trying to install it in Valencia before the “lack of commitment” and “indeterminacy” shown by the authorities. As this newspaper published at the time, this failed project, L’Ull de València, which had an approximate budget of 120 million euros, calculated that this attraction could employ 250 people directly and between 2,000 and 3,000 indirectlyThe planned attraction could then accommodate 500 people.
Other needs
For the opposition, led by Más Madrid, this idea is “absurd” and shows that the executive only cares about “tourism and the business of some”, wrote Rita Maestre, the party’s spokesperson, in X. “We do not want Madrid to become a theme park away from their neighbors,” he added. Tierno Galván Park, one of the largest green spaces in the city (45 hectares), has hosted several events and festivals in recent months that have sparked complaints from some residents of the Arganzuela neighborhood. Esther Gómez, mayor of Más Madrid, also denounced in “A Ferris wheel is clearly a first order need “Residents of the neighborhood who do not have a municipal sports center, a summer swimming pool or a health center,” he said ironically.
