Spanish architecture

Spanish architecture is a rich and highly influenced architecture.

Background

Due to historic, geographic and generational diversity, Spanish architecture has been

Prehistory

Iberian and Celtic architecture

The most characteristical constructions of the Celts were the Castros, walled villages usually on the top of hills or mounts. They were developed at the areas ocuppied by the Celts in the Duero valley and in Galicia. Examples include Las Cogotas, in Avila and the Castro of Santa Tecla, in Pontevedra.

The houses inside the Castros are about 3,5 to 5 metres long, mostly circular with some rectangular, stone-made and with thatch roofs which rested on a wood column in the centre 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 urbanistic development like Numancia. Others were more primitive and usually excavated on the rock, like Termancia.

Pre-Romanesque period

Main article: Spanish Pre-Romanesque art

The term Pre-Romanesque refers to the Christian art after the Classical Age and before Romanesque art and architecture. It cover very heterogenous 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 epoque.

Asturian art

Main article: Asturian art

Mozarabe architecture

Main article: Mozarab

The architectue of Al-Andalus

The influence of Islamic architecture

Main article: Moorish Revival

Mudéjar Style

Main article: Mudéjar

Mudéjar is the name given to the Moors, and native Andalusians who remained in Christian territory but were not converted to Christianity. Their architecture developed mainly fron 12th to 16th centuries, is called also Mudéjar Style. It was strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship, but it is barely shown as a pure style: Mudejar architects frequently combined their techniques and artistic language with other styles, depending of the historical moment. So 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 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 as an integral part of Spanish architecture.

It is accepted that the Mudéjar style was born in Sahagún [1]. Mudéjar extended to the rest of the Kingdom of León, Toledo, Ávila, Segovia, and later to Andalusia, especially Seville and Granada. The Mudéjar Rooms of the Alcázar of Seville, although classified as Mudéjar, more related to the Nasrid Alhambra than to the rest of the style, as they were created by King Pedro the Cruelwho brought architects from Granada with 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 most highly developed mainly 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 city, one of the oldest and most highly developed Mudejar centers.

Romanesque period

Main article: Romanesque architecture

Romanesque first developed in Spain in the 10th and 11th centuries and before Cluny`s influence, in Lérida, Barcelona, Tarragona and Huesca and in the Pyrinees, simultaneously with the north of Italy, into what is been 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.

The plein Romanesque Architecture arrives 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 12th century was the Cathedral of Jaca, with its characteristic absis structure and plan, and its "chess" decoration in strips, called taqueado jaqués. As the Christian Kingdoms advanced to the South, that model spread troughout the reconquered areas with some variations. Spanish Romanesque has also influence of the Spanish pre-romanesque styles, mainly the Asturian and the Mozarab. But there is also a strong influence of the moorish architecture, so close in space, especially the vaults of Córdoba`s Mosque, and the polylobulated arches. In the 13th century, some romanesque churches alternated with the gothic. Aragón, Castile and Navarra are some of the most dense areas of Spanish Romanesque.

The Gothic period

Isabelline Style

Main article: Isabelline

Renaissance

Plateresque Style

Main article: Plateresque

Baroque period

Main article: Spanish Baroque

Churrigueresque

Main article: Churrigueresque

20th century

Contemporay architecture

Architectural developments

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 0932076033
• Chueca Goitia, Fernando: Historia de la arquitectura española, two volumes. Diputación de Ávila, 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 0486262634