Sometimes history is the best source of inspiration to Lappset’s team of designers. In some other cases, the inspiration stems from contemporary features, like virtual gaming. One of the absolutely largest and most beloved standard playground products, the Santa Maria Ship, has its story deeply anchored in history of the Italian adventurer Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean on his largest vessel, La Santa María, built in Pontevedra, Galicia, in Spain’s north-west region. The ship was owned by Juan de la Cosa and launched in 1460. The ship ran aground onto a sandbank on Christmas Eve, the 25th of December in 1492, outside Cap-Haïtien in Haïti.
The first Santa Maria playground ship by Lappset was raised in the beginning of 1990’s in Lisbon, to celebrate the famous seafarer’s voyages across the Atlantic. Ever since, we have delivered similar playground ships to numerous locations in different parts of the world. Outside Madrid, in Alcobendas, the Santa Maria playground was awarded twice the Best Playground in Spain. In the Netherlands, the first Santa Maria was assembled at the Vacation Park Kijkduin some ten years ago. Today, the modern version of the flagship is found for e.g. in Riga, the Capital of Latvia, and as one of the latest assemblies, at the Kids Wonderland in Molenschot in the Netherlands.