Pedestrian Area Calle Mayor de Triana
A shopping promenade that is as much multicultural as it is traditional
Since the beginning of the 20th century this street has been both economically and socially crucial to the city. The Port of Puerto de la Luz was constructed at that time and brought travelers of all different countries to Las Palmas. Many became traders and rented shops in Calle Mayor de Triana.
Not only Canary shops but also oriental bazaars, English banks and German warehouses have turned the entire district of Triana in a quite multicultural part of the city. Visitors from all over the world came to Las Palmas and began building hotels like the ‘Internacional’, ‘Louvre’ and ‘Central’, which put this eclectic influence on display.
At that time, Calle Mayor de Triana was definitely the place-to-be for Las Palmas’ bourgeoisie. From 1852 to 1900 over a hundred (!) shops opened their gates along the street. International clothing, cosmetic, shoe and jewellery shops sprang up like mushrooms. Even the ‘Bank of British-West Africa’ settled here during those years.
Triana’s tramway used to be a highly modern and well-frequented means of transport in the 19th century which ran every half hour throughout the day. Today, the once widespread railway system is reduced to a five-meter sample of tracks exhibited for historically interested visitors. During that time, modernity and past were going alongside; next to the modern tramway donkeys still used to carry heavy loads and increasingly often the crowd would be impressed by the latest invention of that time: the automobile.
Today, a marble board on one of Calle Mayor’s oldest buildings (Corner Calle Torres) reminds of the time around the turn of the century. It reads the following lines by the poet Morales:
“Poem of the trading town: The main street of Triana in its continental splendor: Wide, modern, rich and ambitious; Main artery of Las Palmas.”
While running from north to south and the broad Avenida Maritima cutting Triana from the coastline, the Calle Mayor seems not to touch the Atlantic shore. Only on days when the sea’s swell rises, the roar of the surf and the salty spray of the ocean reach the bustling street.
During the last decades Calle Mayor de Triana was site of several historic events. For example in 1906 Spain’s last king Alfonso XIII visited the town and was warmheartedly welcomed by the locals. Also various carnival festivities were celebrated in the street until their prohibition under the Franco Bahamonde’s dictatorship (1939-1975).
In the middle of the 20th century as times had changed a good many shops could no longer put up with modernization and had to close down. Soon they were replaced by new ventures with names like ‘Mallorca’, ‘Oriente’, ‘Pflügger’, ‘Aleman’, ‘High Life’, ‘Flor de India’ or ‘Oscar Ernst’ which prove that the course of time hasn’t affected the Calle Mayor’s international influence.
Even if economy has partly shifted from the Calle Mayor de Triana towards other parts of the city, it has been able to maintain its individuality and charm and is thus still a very popular place to shop. Like in other European cities traders had to compete with upcoming shopping malls (Las Arenas, El Muelle) at times which they have successfully overcome, though, thanks to the fact that traders along the street have collaborated to market the Calle Mayor as a whole.
Calle Mayor de Triana has always been one of the vivid, attractive and most interesting streets of Las Palmas and who hasn’t yet strolled through the pedestrian area and watched the hustling and bustling there should do it soon and experience a significant aspect of the city’s social and commercial life.
