'Spanish architecture' refers to
architecture carried out during any era in what is now modern-day
Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings within the current geographical limits of Spain before this name was given to those territories (whether they were called
Hispania,
Al-Andalus, or were formed of several Christian kingdoms). Due to its historical and geographical diversity, Spanish architecture has drawn from a host of influences.
Since the first known inhabitants in the
Iberian peninsula, the
Iberians around
4000 BC and later on the
Celtiberians,
[1] Iberian architecture started to take shape in parallel with other architectures around the
Mediterranean and others from
Northern Europe.
A real development came with the arrival of the
Romans, who left behind some of their most outstanding monuments in
Hispania. The arrival of the
Visigoths brought about a profound decline in building techniques which was paralleled in the rest of the former
Empire. The
Moorish invasion in 711 A.D. lead to a radical change and for the following eight centuries there were great advances in culture, including architecture. For example,
Cordoba was established as the cultural Capital of its time under the
Umayyad dynasty. Simultaneously, the Christian kingdoms gradually emerged and developed their own styles, at first mostly isolated from European architectural influences, and later integrated into
Romanesque and
Gothic streams, they reached an extraordinary peak with numerous samples along the whole territory. The
Mudéjar style, from the 12th to 17th centuries, was characterised by the blending of cultural European and Arabic influences.
Towards the end of the 15th century, and before influencing
Latin America with its Colonial architecture, Spain itself experimented with
Renaissance architecture, developed mostly by local architects.
Spanish Baroque was distinguished by its exuberant
Churrigueresque decoration, developing separately from later international influences. The Colonial style, which has lasted for centuries, still has a strong influence in Latin America.
Neoclassicism reached its peak in the work of
Juan de Villanueva and his disciples.
The 19th century had two faces: the engineering efforts to achieve a new language and bring about structural improvements using iron and glass as the main building materials, and the academic focus, firstly on
revivals and
eclecticism, and later on
regionalism. The arrival of
Modernism in the academic arena produced figures such as
Gaudà and much of the architecture of the twentieth century. The
International style was leaded by groups like
GATEPAC. Spain is currently experiencing a revolution in
contemporary architecture and like
Rafael Moneo,
Santiago Calatrava,
Ricardo Bofill as well as many others have gained worldwide renown.
Because of their artistic relevance, many architectural sites in Spain, and even portions of cities, have been designated
World Heritage sites by
UNESCO. Spain has the second highest number of World Heritage Sites in the world; only
Italy has more. ''These are listed at
List of World Heritage Sites in Europe: Spain.''
Prehistory
Megalithic architecture
In the
Stone Age, the most expanded megalith in the Iberian Peninsula was the
dolmen. The plans of these funerary chambers used to be
pseudocircles or
trapezoids, formed by huge stones stuck on the ground, and others over them, forming the roof. As the
typology evolved, an entrance corridor appeared, and gradually took prominence and became almost as wide as the chamber. Roofed corridors and false
domes were common in the most advanced stage. The complex of
Antequera contains the largest dolmens in Europe. The best preserved, the
Cueva de Menga, is twenty-five metres deep and four metres high, and was built with thirty-two
megaliths.
The best preserved examples of architecture from the
Bronze Age are located in the
Balearic Islands, where three kinds of construction appeared: the T-shaped
taula, the
talayot and the
naveta. The talayots were troncoconical or troncopiramidal defensive towers. They used to have a central pillar. The navetas, were constructions made of great stones and their shape was similar to a ship hull.
Iberian and Celtic architecture
Celtic settlements in
Galicia: Castro de Baroña.
The most characteristic constructions of the Celts were the
Castros, walled villages usually on the top of hills or mountains. They were developed at the areas occupied by the Celts in the
Duero valley and in
Galicia. Examples include Las Cogotas, in
Ãvila and the Castro of Santa Tecla, in
Pontevedra.
The houses inside the Castros are about 3.5 to 5 meters long, mostly circular with some rectangular, stone-made and with thatch roofs which rested on a wood column in the center of the building. Their streets are somewhat regular, suggesting some form of central organization.
The towns built by the Arévacos were related to Iberian culture, and some of them reached notable urban development like
Numantia. Others were more primitive and usually excavated into the rock, like
Termantia.
Roman period
Urban development
The Roman conquest of Hispania, started in 218 B.C. supposed the almost complete
romanization of the Iberian Peninsula. Roman culture was deeply assumed by local population: Former military camps and Iberian, Phoenician and Greek settlements were transformed in large cities where urbanization highly developed in the provinces:
Emerita Augusta in the ''
Lusitania'',
Corduba,
Italica,
Hispalis,
Gades in the ''
Baetica'',
Tarraco,
Caesar Augusta,
Asturica Augusta,
Legio Septima Gemina and
Lucus Augusti in the ''
Tarraconensis'' were some of the most important cities, linked by a complex net of roads. The construction development includes some monuments of comparable quality to those of the capital, Rome.
[2]
Constructions
Civil engineering represented in imposing constructions like the
Aqueduct of Segovia or
Mérida (acueducto de los Milagros), in bridges like
Alcántara Bridge and Mérida bridge, over
Tagus River, or Cordoba bridge, over
Guadalquivir River. Civil works were widely developed in Hispania under Emperor
Trajan (98 a. D.-117 a. D.).
Lighthouses like the still in use
Hercules Tower, in
La Coruña, were also built.
Ludic architecture is represented by such buildings as the theaters of Mérida,
Sagunto or
Tiermes, the amphi-theaters like the ones in Mérida, Italica Tarraco or Segobriga and circuses were built in Mérida, Cordoba, Toledo, Sagunto and many others.
Religious architecture also spread thougout the Peninsula, and we can quotate the temples of Cordoba,
Vic, Mérida (Diana and Mars), and
Talavera la Vieja, among others. The main funerary monuments are the Escipiones tower of
Tarragona, the
distyle of Zalamea de la Serena in Badajoz, and the
Mausoleums of the Atilii family, in Sádaba and of Fabara, in Ampurias, both in Zaragoza. Arches of the Triumph can be found in
Caparra (four faced),
Bará and
Medinaceli.
Pre-Romanesque period
The term Pre-Romanesque refers to the Christian art after the
Classical Age and before
Romanesque art and
architecture. It cover very heterogeneous artistic displays for they were developed in different centuries and by different cultures. Spanish territory boasts a rich variety of Pre-Romanesque architecture: some of its branches, like the
Asturian art reached high levels of refinement for their era and cultural context.
Visigothic architecture
Asturian art
The kingdom of Asturias arose in 718, when the Astur tribes, rallied in assembly, decided to appoint
Pelayo as their leader. Pelayo joined the local tribes and the refuged Visigoths under his command, with the intention of progressively restoring Gothic Order.
Asturian Pre-Romanesque is a singular feature in all Spain, which, while combining elements from other styles as
Visigothic and local traditions, created and developed its own personality and characteristics, reaching a considerable level of refinement, not only as regards construction, but also in terms of aesthetics.
As regards its evolution, from its appearance, Asturian Pre-Romanesque followed a ''"stylistic sequence closely associated with the kingdom's political evolution, its stages clearly outlined".'' It was mainly a
court architecture, and five stages are distinguished; a first period (737-791) from the reign of the king
Fáfila to
Vermudo I. A second stage comprises the reign of
Alfonso II (791-842), entering a stage of stylistic definition. These two first stages receive the name of ''Pre-Ramirense''. Its most important church is
San Julián de los Prados, in
Oviedo, with an interesting volumetry and a complex iconographical frescoes progam, related narrowly to the Roman mural paintings. The characteristic lattices and the triple window at the chevet appeared first at this stage. The Holy Chamber of the Oviedo Cathedral, San Pedro de Nora and Santa MarÃa de Bendones also belong to it.
The third period comprises the reigns of
Ramiro I (842-850) and
Ordoño I (850-866). It is called ''Ramirense'' and is considered the zenith of the style, due to the work of an unknown architect who brought new structural and ornamental achievements like the barrel vault, and the consistent use of transverse arches and buttresses, which made the style rather close to the structural achievements of the Romanesque two centuries later. Some writers have pointed to a unexplained Syrian influence of the rich ornamentation. In that period most of the masterpieces of the style flourished: The palace pavilions of
Naranco Mountain and the church of Santa Cristina de
Lena were built in that period.
The fourth period belongs to the reign of
Alfonso III (866-910), where a strong Mozarab influence arrived to Asturian architecture, and the use of the horse-shoe arch expanded. A fifth and last which coincides with the transfer of the court to
León, the disappearance of the kingdom of Asturias, and simultaneously, of Asturian Pre-Romanesque.
Mozarabe architecture
The architecture of Al-Andalus
The Caliphate of Cordoba
The Moorish conquest of the former Hispania by the troops of
Musa ibn Nusair and
Tariq ibn Ziyad, and the overthrowning of the
Umayyad dynasty in
Damascus, leaded to the creation of an independent Emirate by
Abd ar-Rahman I, the only surviving prince who escaped from
Abbasids, and established his Capital city in Cordoba. It was to become the cultural capital of Occident from 750 to 1009. The architecture built in Al-Ãndalus under the Umayyads evolved from the architecture of Damascus with the addition of aesthetic achievements of local influence: the horse-shoe arch, a distinctive of Spanish Arab architecture was taken from Visigoths. Architects, artists and craftsmen came from the Orient to construct cities like
Medina Azahara whose splendour couldn't have been imagined by the European kingdoms of the era.
[3]
The most outstanding construction of the Umayyad Cordoba is the
Great Mosque, built in consecutive stages by Abd ar-Rahman I,
Abd ar-Rahman II,
Al-Hakam II and
Al-Mansur.
The Taifas
The Caliphate disappeared and was split into several small kingdoms called
Taifas. Their political weakness was accompanied by a cultural retreat, and together with a quick advance of the Christian kingdoms, the taifas clung to the prestige of structures and forms of the style of Córdoba. The recession was felt in the construction techniques and in the materials, though not in the profusion of the ornamentation. The lobes of
multifoil arches were multiplied and thinned, transformed in
lambrequins, and all the Caliphal elements were exaggerated. Some magnificent examples of the Taifa architecture have reached our times, like the , in
Zaragoza, or the small mosque of Bab-Mardum, in
Toledo, later transformed into one of the first examples of Mudéjar architecture (
Cristo de la Luz hermitage).
Almoravids and Almohads
Almohad tower and Renaissance bell section merge into a harmonious whole in
La Giralda,
Seville.
The
Almoravids invaded Al-Andalus from north Africa in
1086, and unified the taifas under their power. They developed their own architecture, but very few of it remains because of the next invasion, that of the
Almohads, who imposed Islamic ultra-orthodoxy and destroyed almost every significative Almoravid building, together with Medina Azahara and other Caliphal constructions. Their art was extremely sober and bare, and they used brick as their main material. Virtually their only superficial decoration, the ''
sebka'', is based in a grid of
rhombuses. The Almohads also used palm decoration, but this was nothing more than a simplification of the much more decorated Almoravid palm. As time passed, the art became slightly more decorative. The best know piece of Almohad architecture is the
Giralda, the former
minaret of the Mosque of
Seville. Classified as Mudéjar, but immersed in the Almohad aesthetic, the synagogue of
Santa MarÃa la Blanca, in
Toledo, is a rare example of architectural collaboration of the three cultures of Medieval Spain.
Nasrid architecture of the Kingdom of Granada
After the dissolution of the Almohad empire, the scattered Moorish kingdoms of the south of the Peninsula were reorganized, and in 1237, the
Nasrid kings established their capital city in
Granada. The architecture they produced was to be one of the richest produced by Islam in any period. This owed a great deal to the cultural heritage of the former Moorish styles of Al-Ãndalus, that the Nasrids eclecticly combined, and to the close contact with the northern Christian Kingdoms. The palaces of
Alhambra and the
Generalife are the most outstanding constructions of the this period. The structural and ornamental elements were taken from Cordobese architecture (horse-shoe arches), from Almohads (''sebka'' and palm decoration), but also created by them, like the
prism and
cylindrical capitals and
mocárabe arches, in a gay combination of interior and exterior spaces, of gardening and architecture, that aimed to please all the senses. Unlike the Ummayad architecture, which made use of expensive and imported materials, the Nasrids used only humble materials:
clay,
plaster and
wood. However, the aesthetic outcome is full of complexity and is mystifying for the beholder: The multiplicity of decoration, the skillful use of light and shadow and the incorporation of water into the architecture are some of the keys features of the style.
[4] Epigraphy was also used on the walls of the different rooms, with allusive poems to the beauty of the spaces.
[5]
Mudéjar Style
The architecture of the
Moors and native Andalusians who remained in Christian territory but were not converted to
Christianity is called Mudéjar Style. It developed mainly from 12th to 16th centuries and was strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship but constructed for the use of Christian owners. Thus, it is not really a pure style: Mudejar architects frequently combined their techniques and artistic language with other styles, depending of the historical moment. Thus we can refer to Mudéjar, but also to Mudejar-Romanesque, Mudejar-Gothic or Mudejar-Renaissance.
The Mudéjar style, a
symbiosis of techniques and ways of understanding
architecture resulting from
Jewish,
Muslim and
Christian cultures living side by side, emerged as an architectural style in the
12th century. It is characterised by the use of
brick as the main building material. Mudéjar did not involve the creation of new structures (unlike Gothic or
Romanesque), but reinterpreting
Western cultural styles through
Islamic influences. The dominant geometrical character, distinctly Islamic, emerged conspicuously in the accessory crafts using cheap materials elaborately worked—
tilework,
brickwork,
wood carving, plaster carving, and ornamental metals. Even after the Muslims were no longer employed, many of their contributions remained an integral part of Spanish architecture.
It is accepted that the Mudéjar style was born in
Sahagún.
[6] Mudéjar extended to the rest of the
Kingdom of León,
Toledo, Ãvila,
Segovia, and later to Andalusia, especially Seville and Granada. The Mudéjar Rooms of the
Alcázar of Seville, although classified as Mudéjar, are more closely related to the Nasrid Alhambra than to other buildings of the style as they were created by
Pedro of Castile, who brought architects from Granada who experienced very little Christian influence. Centers of Mudéjar art are found in other cities, like
Toro,
Cuéllar,
Arévalo and
Madrigal de las Altas Torres. It became highly developed in Aragon, especially in
Teruel during the 13th, 14th and
15th centuries, where a group of imposing Mudéjar-style towers were built. Other fine examples of Mudéjar can be found in
Casa Pilatos (Seville), Santa Clara Monastery, in
Tordesillas, or the churches of
Toledo, one of the oldest and most outstanding Mudejar centers. In Toledo, the
synagogues of
Santa MarÃa la Blanca and
El Tránsito (both Mudejar though not Christian) deserve special mention.
[7]
Romanesque period
Romanesque first developed in
Spain in the 10th and 11th centuries, before
Cluny`s influence, in Lérida,
Barcelona,
Tarragona and Huesca and in the Pyrenees, simultaneously with the north of Italy, as what is called "
First Romanesque" or "Lombard Romanesque". It is a very primitive style, whose characteristics are thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of
rhythmic ornamental arches, typified by the churches in the
Valle de BohÃ.
The full Romanesque architecture arrived with the influence of
Cluny through the
Way of Saint James, that ends in the
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The model of the Spanish Romanesque in the 12th century was the Cathedral of
Jaca, with its characteristic plan and apse, and its "chessboard" decoration in stripes, called ''taqueado jaqués''. As the Christian Kingdoms advanced southwards, this model spread throughout the reconquered areas with some variations. Spanish Romanesque also shows the influence of Spanish pre-Romanesque styles, mainly Asturian and
Mozarabic. But there is also a strong Moorish influence, especially the vaults of
Córdoba's Mosque, and the
multifoil arches. In the 13th century, some churches alternated in style between Romanesque and Gothic.
Aragón,
Navarra and
Castile-Leon are some of the best areas for Spanish Romanesque architecture.
The Gothic period
The gothic style arrived in Spain as a result of European influence in 12th century when late Romanesque alternated with a few expressions of pure Gothic architecture like the
Cathedral of Ãvila. The High Gothic arrived in all its strength through the Way of Saint James in the 13th century, with some of the purest Gothic cathedrals, with German and French influence: the cathedrals of
Burgos,
León and
Toledo.
The most important post-13th century Gothic styles in Spain are the Levantino and
Isabelline Gothic. Levantino Gothic is characterised by its structural achievements and their unification of space, with masterpieces as
La Seu (cathedral) in
Palma de Mallorca,
Valencia's silk market, (
Lonja de Valencia), and
Santa Maria del Mar (Barcelona).
Isabelline Gothic, created during the times of the
Catholic Kings, was part of the transition to Renaissance architecture, but also a strong resistance to italian renaissance style. Highlights of the style inclued Saint John of The Kings in
Toledo and the Royal Chapel of
Granada.
Renaissance
Main articles: Architecture of the Spanish Renaissance
In Spain,
Renaissance began to be grafted to Gothic forms in the last decades of the
15th century. The style started to spread made mainly by local architects: that is the cause of the creation of a specifically Spanish Renaissance, that brought the influence of South Italian architecture, sometimes from illuminated books and paintings, mixed with gothical tradition and local idiosincrasy. The new style is called
Plateresque, because of the extremely decorated facades, that brought to the mind the decorative motifs of the intricately detailed work of
silversmiths, the “Platerosâ€. Classical orders and candelabra motifs (''a candelieri'') combined freely into symmetrical wholes.
In that scenery, the
Palace of Charles V by
Pedro Machuca, in Granada, supposed an unexpected achievement in the most advanced Renaissance of the moment. The palace can be defined as an anticipation of the
Manierism, due to its command of the classical language and its rupturist aesthetical achievements. It was constructed before the main works of
Michelangelo and
Palladio . Its influence was very limited, and, misunderstood, Plateresque forms imposed in the general panorama.
As decades passed, the gothical influence disappeared and the research of an orthodox classicism reached high levels. Although Plateresco is a commonly used term to define most of the architectural production of the late XV and first half of XVI, some architects acquired a more sober personal style, like
Diego Siloe and
Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón.
Examples include the facades of the
University of Salamanca and of the
Convent of San Marcos in
León.
The highlight of Spanish Renaissance is represented by the Royal Monastery of
El Escorial, made by
Juan Bautista de Toledo and
Juan de Herrera where a much closer adherence to the art of ancient Rome was overpassed by an extremely sober style. The influence from
Flanders roofs, the symbolism of the scarce decoration and the precise granite cut were established as the basis of a new style that would influence Spanish architecture for a century:
Herreriano.
Baroque period
As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the
Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classicizing approach of Juan de Herrera, which had been in vogue since the late sixteenth century. As early as 1667, the facades of
Granada Cathedral (by
Alonso Cano) and
Jaen Cathedral (by
Eufrasio López de Rojas) suggest the artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.
Vernacular Baroque with its roots still in Herrera and in traditional brick construction was developed in
Madrid throughout the 17th century. Examples include
Plaza Mayor and the Major House.
In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period appealed to the emotions rather than seeking to please the intellect. The
Churriguera family, which specialized in designing altars and retables, revolted against the sobriety of the Herreresque classicism and promoted an intricate, exaggerated, almost capricious style of surface decoration known as the
Churrigueresque. Within half a century, they transformed
Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city.
The evolution of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, the Churriguera popularized
Guarini's blend of
Solomonic columns and
composite order, known as the "supreme order". Between 1720 and 1760, the Churrigueresque column, or estipite, in the shape of an inverted cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a gradual shift of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation toward a neoclassical balance and sobriety.
Two of the most eye-catching creations of Spanish Baroque are the energetic facades of the
University of Valladolid (Diego Tome, 1719) and
Hospicio de San Fernando in Madrid (Pedro de Ribera, 1722), whose curvilinear extravagance seems to herald
Antonio Gaudi and
Art Nouveau. In this case as in many others, the design involves a play of tectonic and decorative elements with little relation to structure and function. However, Churrigueresque baroque offered some of the most impressive combinations of space and light with buildings like
Granada Charterhouse, considered to be the apotheosis of Churrigueresque styles applied to interior spaces, or the ''Transparente'' of the Cathedral of Toledo, by Narciso Tomé, where sculpture and architecture are integrated to achieve notable light dramatic effects.
The
Royal Palace of Madrid and the interventions of
Paseo del Prado (''Salón del Prado'' and ''Alcalá'' Doorgate) in the same city, deserve special mention. They were constructed in a sober Baroque international style, often mistaken for neoclassical, by the Bourbon kings
Philip V and
Charles III. The Royal Palaces of
La Granja de San Ildefonso, in
Segovia, and
Aranjuez, in Madrid, are good examples of baroque integration of architecture and gardening, with noticeable French influence (La Granja is known as the ''Spanish Versailles''), but with local spatial conceptions which in some ways display the heritage of the Moorish occupation.
Rococo was first introduced to Spain in the (
Cathedral of Murcia, west facade, 1733). The greatest practitioner of the Spanish Rococo style was a native master,
Ventura RodrÃguez, responsible for the dazzling interior of the
Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in
Saragossa (1750).
Spanish Colonial architecture
The church of Santa Prisca in
Taxco: Mexican Churrigueresque.
The combination of the Native American and Moorish decorative influences with an extremely expressive interpretation of the Churrigueresque idiom may account for the full-bodied and varied character of the Baroque in the American colonies of Spain. Even more than its Spanish counterpart, American Baroque developed as a style of stucco decoration. Twin-towered facades of many American cathedrals of the seventeenth century had medieval roots and the full-fledged Baroque did not appear until 1664, when the Jesuit shrine on Plaza des Armas in
Cusco was built.
The Peruvian Baroque was particularly lush, as evidenced by the monastery of San Francisco in
Lima (1673), which has a dark intricate facade sandwiched between the twin towers of local yellow stone. While the rural Baroque of the Jesuite missions (estancias) in
Córdoba, Argentina, followed the model of
Il Gesù, provincial "mestizo" (crossbred) styles emerged in
Arequipa,
Potosà and
La Paz. In the eighteenth century, the architects of the region turned for inspiration to the
Mudejar art of medieval Spain. The late Baroque type of Peruvian facade first appears in the Church of Our Lady of La Merced,
Lima (1697-1704). Similarly, the Church of La Compañia,
Quito (1722-65) suggests a carved altarpiece with its richly sculpted facade and a surfeit of spiral
salomónica.
To the north, the richest province of 18th-century
New Spain —
Mexico — produced some fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque. This ultra-Baroque approach culminates in the works of
Lorenzo Rodriguez, whose masterpiece is the
Sagrario Metropolitano in
Mexico City (1749-69). Other fine examples of the style may be found in the remote silver-mining towns. For instance, the Sanctuary at
Ocotlan (begun in 1745) is a top-notch Baroque cathedral surfaced in bright red tiles, which contrast delightfully with a plethora of compressed ornament lavishly applied to the main entrance and the slender flanking towers.
The true capital of Mexican Baroque is
Puebla, where a ready supply of hand-painted glazed tiles (
talavera) and vernacular gray stone led to its evolving further into a personalised and highly localised art form with a pronounced Indian flavour.
Neoclassical Style
The extremely intellectual postulates of
Neoclassicism succeeded in Spain less than the much more expressive of Baroque. Spanish Neoclassicism was spread by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, founded in
1752. The main figure was
Juan de Villanueva, who adapted
Burke's achievements about the sublime and the beauty to the requirements of Spanish clime and history. He built the
Prado Museum, that combined three programs- an academy, an auditorium and a museum- in one building with three separated entrances. This was part of the ambitious program of Charles III, who intended to make Madrid the Capital of Art and Science. Very close to the museum, Villanueva built the Astronomical Observatory. He also designed several summer houses for the kings in
El Escorial and
Aranjuez and reconstructed the Major Square of
Madrid, among other important works. Villanuevas´ pupils
Antonio López Aguado and
Isidro González Velázquez spread the Neoclassical style through the center of the country..
19th century
Eclecticism and Regionalism
Communications Palace of
Madrid.
A important
eclecticism building is the
Communications Palace of Madrid (''Palacio de Comunicaciones de Madrid''), designed by
Antonio Palacios and
JoaquÃn Otamendi. It was inaugurated in
1909.
Neo-Mudéjar Style
In the late 19th century a new architectural movement emerged in Madrid as a
revival of the
Mudéjar architecture. The Neo-Mudéjar soon spread to other regions of the country. Such architects as
Emilio RodrÃguez Ayuso perceived the Mudéjar art as characteristical and exclusive Spanish style. They started to construct buildings using some of the features of the ancient style, as horse-shoe arches and the use of the abstract shaped brick ornamentations for the façades. It became a popular style for
bull rings and for other public constructions, but also for housing, due to its cheap materials, mainly brick for exteriors.
The Neo-Mudéjar was often combined with Neo-Gothic features.
Glass architecture
20th century
Catalan Modernisme
Main articles: Modernisme
When the city of
Barcelona was allowed to expand beyond its historic limits in the late 19th century, the resulting ''
Eixample'' ("extension": ''larger than the old city''; by
Ildefons Cerdá), became the site of a burst of architectural energy known as the
Modernisme movement. Modernisme broke with past styles and used organic forms for its inspiration in the same way as the concurrent
Art-Nouveau and
Jugendstil movements in the rest of Europe. Most famous among the architects represented there is
Antoni GaudÃ, whose works in
Barcelona and elsewhere in
Catalonia, mixing traditional architectural styles with the new, were a precursor to
modern architecture. Perhaps the most famous example of his work is the still-unfinished
La Sagrada FamÃlia, the largest building in the ''Eixample''.
Other notable Catalan architects of that period include
LluÃs Domènech i Montaner and
Josep Puig i Cadafalch.
Modernist architecture
The creation in 1928 of the
GATCPAC group in Barcelona, followed by the foundation of
GATEPAC (1930) by architects, mainly from Zaragoza, Madrid, San Sebastián and Bilbao, established two groups of young architects practicing the
Modern Movement in Spain.
Josep Lluis Sert,
Fernando GarcÃa Mercadal,
Jose MarÃa de Aizpurúa and
JoaquÃn Labayen among others were organised in three regional groups.
[8]
Other architects explored the Modern Style with their personal views: Casto Fernández Shaw with his visionary work, most of it on paper,
Josep Antoni Coderch, with his integration of the Mediterranean housing and the new style concepts or
Luis Gutiérrez Soto, mostly influenced by the Expresionist tendences.
In 1929
World's Fair was held in Barcelona and the
German pavilion designed by
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became an instant icon; amalgamating Rohe's
minimalism and notions of
truth to materials with a
De Stijl influenced treatment of planes in space. The large overhanging roof famously 'hovers' apparently unsupported.
During and after the
Spanish civil war and
World War II, Spain found herself both politically and economically isolated. The consequent effect of which, in tandem with
Franco's preference for "a deadening, nationalistic sort of classical kitsch", was to largely suppress progressive modern architecture in Spain.
[9] Nevetheless, some architects could make coexist in their works the official approval and the advance in the construction, like Gutiérrez Soto, interested in tipology and rational distribution of the spaces whose prolific work alternated historical revivals and racionalist image with ease. Luis Moya Blanco's achievements in the construction with brick vaults deserve also a mention. His interest in the traditional brick construction lead him to a deep investigation in the modern formal possibilities of that material.
In the last decades of the Franco's life, a new generation of architects rescued the legacy of the GATEPAC with strength:
Alejandro de la Sota was the pioneer in that new way, and young architects as
Francisco Javier Sáenz de OÃza,
Fernando Higueras and
Miguel Fisac, often with modest budgets, investigated in prefabrication and collective housing typos.
Contemporary architecture
The death of Franco and the return of democracy brought a new architectural optimism to Spain in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Critical regionalism became the dominant school of thought for serious architecture.
[10] The influx of money from EU funding, tourism and a flowering economy strengthened and stabilised Spain's economic base, providing fertile conditions for Spanish architecture. A new generation of architects emerged, amongst whom were
Enric Miralles,
Carme Pinós, and the architect/engineer
Santiago Calatrava. The 1992
Barcelona Olympics and the
World's Fair in Seville, further bolstered Spain's reputation on the international stage, to the extent that many architects from countries suffering from recessions, moved to Spain to assist in the boom. In recognition of Barcelona's patronage of architecture, the
Royal Institute of British Architects awarded the
Royal Gold Medal to Barcelona in 1999, the first time in its history the award was made to a city.
[11] Bilbao attracted the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to construct a new gallery which opened in 1997. Designed by
Frank Gehry in a
deconstructivist manner, the
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao became world famous and single-handedly raised the profile of Bilbao on the world stage. Such was the success of the museum that the construction of iconic architecture in towns aspiring to raise their international profile has become a recognised town planning strategy known as the "Bilbao effect".
[12]
Famous Spanish architects of the 20th Century
The
MUSAC by Mansilla+Tuñón
★
Antonio Gaudà (1852-1926)
★
Lluis Domenech i Montaner (1850-1923)
★
Secundino Zuazo (1887-1971)
★
Antonio Palacios (1874-1945)
★
Casto Fernández-Shaw (1896-1978)
★
Josep Lluis Sert (1902-1983)
★
Josep Antoni Coderch (1913-1984)
★
Luis Gutiérrez Soto (1890-1977)
★
Alejandro de la Sota (1913-1996)
★
Miguel Fisac (1913-2006)
★
Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza (1918-2000)
★
Julio Cano Lasso (1920-1996)
★
Rafael Moneo (1937),
Pritzker Prize in 1996
★
Ricardo Bofill (1939)
★
Santiago Calatrava (1951)
★
Enric Miralles (1955-2000)
★
Alberto Campo Baeza (1946)
★
Alejandro Zaera (1963)
★
Mansilla+Tuñón
21st Century
Torre Agbar
In 2006, Terminal 4 of
Barajas Airport by
Richard Rogers and
Antonio Lamela won the British
Stirling Prize. The
Torre Agbar or
Agbar Tower, is a skyscraper in
Barcelona by French architect
Jean Nouvel. It measures 144.4 meters (466 feet in height) and consists of a 38 stories, including 4 underground levels. Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over 4,400 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.
Vernacular architecture
Due to the strong climatic and topographic differences throughout the country, the
vernacular architecture shows a plentiful variety.
Limestone,
slate,
granite, clay (cooked or not),
wood,
grass are used in the different regions, and also structure and distribution differ largely depending of the regional customs. Some of this constructions are houses (like
cortijo,
carmen,
barraca,
caserÃo,
pazo,
alquerÃa), as well as the next pictured ones:
Bibliography
★ '' New Architecture in Spain (PB)'' - Edited and with essay by Terence Riley. ISBN 0-87070-499-0
★ Carver, Norman F. Jr. (1982) ''Iberian Villages Portugal & Spain''. Documan Press Ltd. ISBN 0-932076-03-3
★ Chueca Goitia, Fernando: ''Historia de la arquitectura española'', two volumes. Diputación de Ãvila, 2001. ISBN 84-923918-7-1
★ Newcomb, Rexford (1937). ''Spanish-Colonial Architecture in the United States''. J.J. Augustin, New York. Dover Publications; Reprint edition (April 1, 1990). ISBN 0-486-26263-4
★
Igualada Cemetery: Barcelona, 1986-90 - Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos (Architecture in Detail S.), , Anatxu, Zabalbeascoa, Phaidon Press, , ISBN 0-7148-3281-2
References
1. A picture of a Celtiberian house in Numantia
2. Chueca Goitia, Fernando. ''De Grecia al Islam.'' Seminarios y Ediciones, 1974. ISBN 84-299-0054-3 Pages 172-174, 179 DOSSAT, 2000, ISBN 84-95312-32-8
3. Descriptions of Ibn Arabi, Ibn Bashkuwal, Al-Maqqari and contemporary chronists. [1]
4. Chueca Goitia, Fernando: ''Invariantes castizos de la Arquitectura Española. Manifiesto de la Alhambra'' ISBN 84-237-0459-9
5. Garcia Gomez, Emilio: ''Poemas árabes en los muros y fuentes de la Alhambra'' ISBN 84-600-4134-4 / 8460041344 Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos en Madrid
6. [2]
7. López Guzmán, Rafael. ''Arquitectura mudéjar.'' Manuales Arte Cátedra. ISBN 84-376-1801-0
8. http://bibliotecnica.upc.es/bib210/consultesib/GATCPAC_GATEPAC.pdf
9. Gains in Spain: Once-Staid Architecture Soars Ahead of the Curve - Washington Post
10. Zabalbeascoa
11. list of medal winners (PDF)
12. Bacharach, Jacob (2002) ''The Bilbao Effect''
See also
★
Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid
★
Spanish art
العربية
ä¸å›½
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिनà¥à¤¦à¥€
Italiano
日本語
Português
РуÑÑкий
Español
.jpg)
