Theatro José de Alencar - Burle Marx Garden

The first garden was opened in 1975, with the presence of a fountain that was later removed due to maintenance difficulties. The second, with the current design, appeared in 1991. The space also maintains an open-air stage.

Unlike the first project idea, the current one follows an extensive floor model, with an orthogonal cut, in red ceramic brick and gray hydraulic tile, with discreet details in light gray granite.

The space dedicated to artistic presentations of the most varied formats, makes the public and artists hold events in connection with nature.

The garden created by landscaper Burle Marx is intended to embrace and protect the theater, through the charm and wonder of everyday life, similar to what we find in the garden of our own house.

A power of discovery of the vastness of worlds that the landscaper brings to a cozy space in the middle of the city center, making foliage and flowers transform the world on a human scale.

As an oasis in the urban chaos of downtown Fortaleza, the garden expands the landscape of our eyes with specimens that sprout on the banks of rivers, beaches and oceans. Life that is born in the dunes, in the caatinga, on the side of the road. Flora that interrupts the aridity of immense sands.

Almost like a true “Garden of Aphrodite”, full of roses, birds, butterflies and an infinity of flowers. Iron and wooden benches, among other elements that complement the beauty of the gardens.

In the garden, Burle Marx applies his knowledge of painting and music acquired in Germany, as well as botany and ecology. With the survey and identification of plant species, the landscaper aims to encourage the education of the population.

As an educational object, the garden would be a means of instructing and transmitting knowledge through the set of its elements, among which vegetation appears as the main focus.

A modern garden, with the language of the local and regional Brazilian landscape, then assimilated into the artistic composition of the project, the painting of simple people and the discoveries of plant species in expeditions carried out in the interior of the country.

The old "oitizeiro" that has been in the garden of Theatro José de Alencar since before its construction, following the passage of time and the spatial transformations of the place.

Largest green waterfall in Ceará. A wall of more than ten meters high, covered by the species tumba, and which serves as a background for the open-air stage. The famous waterfall with the climbing species has camouflaged the garden wall since 1973, being maintained in the 1990 renovation.

This vine was implanted meter by meter, in order to climb on a fence with a distance of about ten centimeters from the wall, thus creating a green curtain from end to end of the background of the main garden.

Following a natural tendency of his work regarding the selection of plant material, in both versions of the project we can see the use of exotic and native species, arranged harmoniously side by side.

The "jucás" and the "pau-ferro", species of the Libidibia genus, very similar to each other, are the main representatives of the native flora of the Northeast in the vegetation plan of the theater garden. Its soft shade and its trunks of exuberant beauty stand out in the environment.

Among the favorite species included in the garden design of the landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx, there are species of the Araceae, Bromeliaceae, Musaceae, Orchidaceae, Marantaceae, Vellosiaceae and Apocinaceae families.

Many plants were later introduced, detracting from the original design. Some can be considered as positive contributions, such as the dense pleomele bush, examples of triangular palms and a cluster of fan palms.

The garden has several living areas created under the canopy of the proposed trees and a set formed by 14 imperial palm trees.

One of the main focal points of the garden is formed by a fan palm that dominates the front part of the space, being even well viewed from the street.

Throughout the garden, there is a concern in defining the vegetation plan, with the choice of species that are more resistant to the local climate.

The design of the garden beds has a dispersed presentation of the species, with reduced use of delimiters between the groups of shrubs, herbs and forages.

The entire garden was designed as a way to make the theater building appear loose, giving space for its visualization through three of its facades.