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Super Mario, Tetris or Zelda have found better than a live-action film for their second youth: a place in the urban planning plan of Arcosur, a district of Zaragoza which pays tribute to video games with street plates.
Photo : Google Streetview
It all started in 2009. On the outskirts of Zaragoza, the municipality wants to give a democratic breath to the birth of a new district, Arcosur. Future inhabitants are offered to choose the names of the streets themselves. Two options arrive in the final: Spanish monuments… and video games. It is the latter who wins, to everyone’s surprise and to the delight of the nostalgic for the Super Nintendo.
-Conditions imposed by the town hall: non -violent titles and translated into Spanish. Exit therefore GTA, welcome to “La Leyenda de Zelda”, “Los Sims”, “El Príncipe de Persia” or “Tetris”. The only rule for the rule: “Los invasores del Espacio” (Space Invaders), whose name does not frankly reassure the vicinity. Everything composes a city plan that looks like a giant console. Each intersection is a nod to an era when we were blowing in the cartridges to start the adventure.
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Success is such that Drosur inspires other saragosse corners. In Valdespartera, it is the classics of cinema that are invited to the facades: “The Magician of Oz”, “An American in Paris”, “Le Guépard”… grouped around an avenue called “El Séptimo Arte”. In Rosales del Canal, it is a tribute to the composers: Beethoven, Vivaldi, Bach come across it as in a classic radio playlist.
It remains to imagine the rest. A scientist district? Planets? Chemical elements? In any case, a beautiful-and fun-use of our free will.
