A walk through the modern and contemporary architecture of Murcia: from 'Los Listos' to 'Los Tontos'
MURCIA. Last September, the XI Iberian Docomomo Congress was held in Murcia, a foundation to document and preserve the architecture of the Modern Movement as an essential part of the culture of the 20th century. In this event we made a guided tour of the city starting the walk in its reason for being, the Roman Thader and current Segura River, where Helia de San Nicolás Juárez, in his personal and first translation of the Invisible Cities of Ítalo Calvino to Murcia, he glimpses Valdrada, the city of the inverted reflection, because "the two Valdradas live for each other, constantly looking into each other's eyes but they don't love each other…".
You have believed that because I am good / You can go stepping where I wash; or in this case 'irrigation', is what a huertano could have hummed in the eighties retroparaphrasing these lyrics by Los Tontos of the current musical phenomenon C. Tangana. And the fact is that, while some 'smart guys' polluted the Segura river, others more 'smart', or rather 'enlightened', started in 1983, two years before the national historical heritage law, an emblematic restoration project: The Museum of the Mills.
The new mills, abandoned in the seventies after the industrialization process, were the only ones from the 18th century that remained standing. The project was entrusted to a young Navarro Baldeweg, who in turn received the divine help of her neighbor the Virgin of Dangers, since the project was miraculously saved from an avenue in the construction phase. Contrary to what happened on previous occasions, where several mills succumbed to the destructive flooding of the river.
Allende del Segura was devised a reference rehabilitation to create the first hydraulic museum in Spain and incidentally a new and stratified river landscape to observe from here (here of the river). Like an arch-architect, Baldeweg peeled back the layers until he was down to the essentials. And taking into account the invisible qualities of the context, he designed an austere and sensitive architecture in search of the charm of discretion whose undulating profile today rocks in the 'trompe l'oeil' waters of the Segura.
The work was considered one of the ten best architectures of the eighties in Spain. Inside it rises, delicate and discreet, a concrete cortile-skylight with which the author began his personal reflection on the gravity and weight of light and which from then on would constitute a hallmark of his work. Continuing with the Calvinian cities, this place evokes Clarisa, that 'tormented' city that falls and is reborn because "a sumptuous butterfly Clarisa sprouts from the needy Clarisa chrysalis".
In 1997, as a paradox in pursuit of modernity, the modern architecture of the Rowing Club (Sancho Ruano, 1960) was demolished to make room for the Malecón or Manterola Footbridge (1997). After the award-winning environmental regeneration, today it is a key area to recover the relationship with our essence through that look of lost love. And that is what the 'Murcia Río' project does, whose River Walk by Guillermo Jiménez and Juan García has just won the Public Space and Landscape Architecture Award at the 2021 Architecture Awards.
The 'sock city'
We cross the river and turn our eyes towards the windmills of Allende as we approach what we could call the 'sock city'. Well, after turning its back on the river as does the rear of the Episcopal Palace and the College of Theologians (currently IES Licenciado Cascales), the city turns on itself creating a 'representative façade'. This was possible thanks to another sign of modernity, in this case an urban intervention. It involved the construction of a new retaining wall for the river in 1953 in front of the old one from the 18th century.
On the one hand, the work buried the Ruiz Hidalgo Park, which was at river level, but on the other hand it avoided the risk of flooding and opened a new and fundamental circulatory axis that expanded the representative space of the city for the Town Hall. To this facade, in which La Convalecencia was already located, would be added the Provincial Council (current Ministry of Finance), Palace of Justice and the Government Delegation (former Civil Government, Prieto Moreno, 1954), which is considered one of the best examples delMovimientoModerno in the city of Murcia, being the last public institution to look at the river has been the Rectorate of the University of Murcia to rehabilitate the Convalescence.
Belluga's urban symphony
But our main destination is El Moneo, which some young people call 'El Memeo'. After a discarded first idea of demolishing whatever was necessary to create a large square that would allow the view of the cathedral from the Gran Vía Salzillo, an ideas competition was held that, full of neo-baroque projects to adapt to the local environment and style, neither went ahead.
Again, other 'smart', at the proposal of Professor Bonet, entrust the project to Rafael Moneo, a city architect whose challenge is to intervene in the most delicate place and full of 'genus loci' in the historic center of Murcia. Moneo, like an orchestra conductor, took the baton, read the site and created an urban symphony from a stony musical score that screeches to some and sounds like heavenly music to others.
The work (1991-98) is set back and its façade, thanks to the free plan of the Modern Movement, is separated, dramatized and turned to admire, talk and evoke that of the cathedral. Other inspirations are known but none as curious as the one that arose during Moneo's stay at the Hotel Arco de San Juan. It is said that the play of light and shadow in an old dovecote, which he watched at night in front of his window, inspired such a successful creation. Finally, the civil power, in a historic turn, returns to the interior to face the religious power, but from the distance of a secular democracy.
The façade building, in an exercise of respectful bifrontism, competes in turn with the façade of the cathedral after the urban ecstasy produced by its appearance when turning from Arenal Street towards Plaza Belluga. The square is thus transformed into a gigantic urban 'ring' where both facades are the boxers, the episcopal palace is the referee and the buildings on the north side, the public. Despite the first direct blows from the cathedral, the unfair arbitration and the booing of the masses, the resilient Moneo does not throw in the towel and gets up after each round in search of a technical draw and who knows if the final victory.
This project, which portrays his time, was a shock to shake off the provincialism of 'Murcia, how beautiful you are!' and incorporate ourselves into contemporaneity with this postmodern work of art that was a master class in dialogue with history. The author received the Pritzker during the works and, despite harsh criticism, it is the only work by Moneo that is called 'El Moneo'.
And what invisible city would Plaza Belluga be? Well, Melanie. The one where, in the middle of the square, there is always a dialogue as changeable as its actors but at the same time as unnoticed as the brief lives of its inhabitants. And an emotional dialogue is the one that arose last October in the workshop, which was coordinated by Helia, was held in Murcia to map the cities of Ítalo Calvino in the sister cities of Genoa and Murcia.
Recently inaugurated, the 'unfaithful' Moneo was stoned to death like an urban adulterer. His representative window was cruelly pierced by a basalt cobblestone from the magnificent, albeit harsh, new plaza under construction. And he was surely a 'vandal', because, even if he had known Latin, such an artistic attack would not have been avoided, since he could not read the classic motto of the City Council's coat of arms 'Priscass Novissima Exaltat, et Amor', since it was eliminated from the new design of the shield that stars the glass. Therefore, to help dialogue and prevent new attacks, how about we place a bronze inscription on the pavement of the square with the lost emblem 'Love and Exalt the Old and the New'.
Today, the interim Moneo is a symbol of contemporary Murcia, corporate image and inspiration for graffiti or jewelry such as those of the Arkimista brand, as well as its Christmas lights for Gran Vía in 2019. Special mention is the use of Moneo as an image tour. As such, it has been consolidated in the recently presented new brand of the capital, where the building stars in the 'Soul of the city' section, which is defined as 'Modern', thus prolonging a debate and an ambition initiated at the genesis of the opening of the Gran Vía .
Likewise, it is the unexpected object of new uses such as a seat, a bar, a scenic and artistic front -such as the recent 'Light Code Video Attack' (HAZ/Festilab)-, as well as an advertising, protest or commemorative support when it is dyed different colors by various reasons. Likewise, its magnificent terrace is usually the scene of protocol presentations and municipal projects. From there we were able to delight ourselves with the immeasurable view over Belluga Square and comment on the mystery that is enclosed behind the fence of the closing wall of the English patio.
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In spite of everything, the work continues receiving severe comments from the people in general; however, it charms the North American public. Meanwhile, the City Council insists on putting large vases and flowerpots in the square to decorate it and make it more friendly, although it only provokes its withdrawal after the anger of Rafael himself. But there is a solution that, although very controversial, is a trend. It is about using the façade as a canvas and coloring it as has been done with the Fisac sports center in Getafe or a lighthouse in Cantabria. In our case, I see it clearly, I see a Mondrian in the Moneo, a 'Moneondrian'.
The 'wide' route of Correos
Bordering the Cathedral on the right, we find the fountain (1954) that was in the center of Plaza Belluga and that Moneo preserved and relocated despite the fact that many think it was lost. A little further on, at number 16 of the Plaza de los Apóstoles, we see another of the possible local inspirations for the façade of the new town hall.
From there we will go out to what people call Calle Correos (1942-49) and which, originally called 'Vía Broad', is, after that of Alfonso X el Sabio, the second of the three Gran Vías that Murcia has. The project was the "result of the fusion and extension of several streets and squares through surgical interventions and urban suture of the medieval enclosure". The new road was intended to link the stations of Zaraiche and El Carmen through the New Bridge and be the first commercial and representative. The project affected the convent of San Antonio and remained unfinished, as it affected the Floridablanca Palace and other properties of caciques premises. In Plaza Cetina, Galerías Preciados was inaugurated, the first modern department store in the city, with a self-service supermarket included, which would later move to the current Gran Vía Salzillo.
At the time that the modern movement arrived in Spain, the Post Office building (1931) was built in neo-baroque style. After its abandonment, the interior was contemporaryized for the Manifesta 8 Art Biennial and later with the exquisite interior design of the Clavel studio for the current gastro-market. Next door, Jesús Carballal devised the Muralla delRincón de Pepe cafeteria in 1995, a national benchmark in terms of new uses of archaeological heritage that was selected for the Hispania Nostra awards.
Returning to the Cathedral, we continue around its head to find something quite unusual. This is the external enclosure of the Socorro Chapel (2003). A brave intervention in onyx and resin with which Juan Antonio Molina writes a "new page in the history of the monument, resounding and purely contemporary".
From the Plaza de la Cruz we access the Cathedral to be surprised by the renovation of the Museum of the Cathedral by Antonio Abellán (2007), a contemporary High Tech project that is sensitive to horizontal and vertical archaeology. And the Cathedral, what is its equivalent city? It would be Zaira, "the city of the high bastions and of the relations between the measures of its space and the events of its past". As soon as we enter Trapería we find one of the two houses registered by Docomomo to José Luis León, it is number 3, from the year 1934. Later we make a mini stop at number 21, a rationalist and avant-garde building that is simple at the same time. and discreet. In the humble plate of its modest and dark facade, which may be preserved, you can read that it was erected based on the Salmon Law or the Unemployment Law of 1935 to promote employment and rental housing.
A 'battleship' in the city
In Plaza Santo Domingo we come across what is popularly known as 'El Acorazado' (José Luis León, 1935). A building, like the one in Trapería, away from the regionalist and eclecticist constructions so popular among the Murcian bourgeoisie of the time. Its name comes from its rational and hermetic appearance, and the urban legend says that it was the first concrete building in the city. His resistance was put to the test in 2017 with the collapse of the 'killer ficus' whose branches stopped on the nautical bars of his balcony. On the edge of the square, after demolishing the Palacio de los Vélez, the first Gran Vía surnamed 'interior' was born, the current Alfonso X el Sabio (1936), which connected the city with the Caravaca/Zaraiche station, built in the new Circular Plaza within the urban expansion plan to the north.
Crossing the Arch of Santo Domingo Domingo we arrive at the Romea square, renovated by Fernando de Retes in 1993, from where we headed to the popularly known as Gran Vía. Its initial layout was called Gran Vía Romea (1929), as it passed next to the theater and also the interior Gran Vía like the first one by Alfonso XEl Sabio. Today our 'Gran Vía' is really called Gran Vía Escultor Francisco Salzillo, but it had more names before. Originally it was named Gran Vía Central, as well as Gran Vía del Puente Viejo and finally Avenida de José Antonio, before renaming it with the current definition as a result of the arrival of democracy.
Destruction in the name of modernity
The project dates back to the beginning of the 20th century and took fifty years to complete. Murcians compared themselves to Alicante and Valencia and considered that they inhabited a city with terrible hygienic conditions. The Unamuno description of Murcia as "the most orchard city in Spain" was a very heavy ballast, so that supposed provincial image had to be shaken off.
Therefore, the objective was to transform the capital into a true great city, making it wake up from its 'napping attitude'. In short, urbanize the inherited city because they do not consider it as such a city. The aim was to achieve a modern and therefore motorized and capitalist city through a kind of 'dehuertanization' process, while at the same time adding to the postulates of hygienist urbanism.
In turn, the Gran Vía was seen as a real estate and commercial business opportunity, as well as a representation space for the local elite, who actually despised the city to the point of almost destroying it completely. In the name of modernity, hundreds of buildings were demolished, including palaces and convents.
The most significant case was that of the Arab baths of Madre de Dios (National Monument, 1931), which were destroyed by the City Council in 1952 at dawn and after a harsh debate in the press and even, according to what they say, a slap to the mayor . Next month marks the seventieth anniversary of his disappearance. According to Chueca Goitia "Murcia could have been one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in our entire peninsula if we had known how to preserve it" and he concludes by saying "what a José Antonio avenue, breaking up the old and delicate city to satisfy speculative appetites".
The project, taking advantage of several convents and holes caused by the confiscation, moves from the side of the Romea to the west to connect the North (Zaraiche) railway station with the South (Carmen) but "based on a brutal bulldozer surgery". After sectioning the ancient and sinuous plot of the old town, to absorb the growing motorized traffic through the Puente de los Peligros, it would achieve what the Vía Broad and current Post Office failed to achieve.
In the mid-1950s the project was completed, despite not a few social conflicts. Finally, Murcia was considered a modern city and this was reflected in the local press. Today, the Huerta de Murcia and surrounding municipalities is the region of the 'Metropolitan Area of Murcia', thus raising the urban status of the capital and surely angering more than one resident of the Campo de Cartagena-Mar Menor region.
Architectural contrasts and the so-called 'Darth Vader'
When crossing the Gran Vía, at the confluence with Sta. Teresa street, a violent urban contrast in style and height is perceived between the historicist Treasury Delegation of 1952, precisely the year of the destruction of the Arab baths, and the Modern Movement of the Convert Building (1971). Its author, the recently deceased and National Architecture Award Winner Fernando Garrido, enjoyed municipal debula to "scratch skies".
The work is characterized by a large curtain wall and the use of aluminum carpentry with corner viewpoints that initiate a sawtooth side façade. From its terrace there is an impressive view of the city, of the entire Gran Vía and of different works on surrounding terraces sponsored by the covid era. Buildings like this one, through height and singularity, provided an urban image and verticality since the ground floors were already something of bad taste.
This building is included in the publication 'Architecture and architects of the Modern Movement in the Region of Murcia' promoted by the Historical Heritage Service of the Ministry of Education and Culture and which last month won the award for disclosure in the recent Awards of Architecture 2021.
A little further on we find the headquarters of the now-defunct Cajamurcia. Designed by Enrique Carbonell and José María Torres Nadal (1978-83), it is the best example of the most recent architecture of the Great Avenue and has, in the resolution of its corner, a clear nod to the Civil Government of Tarragona of Alejandro de la Sota.
And we arrive at the final destination of this route from the River to the Avenue, from the South to the North and from the Origins to the Ensanche de Murcia, which originated in the mini Plaza de la Fuensanta. In front of it rises majestically the current Hispania building, and the former Banco Vitalicio residential building, which for a few years has been guarded by one of Manolo Valdés's Meninas, named by many as the 'Lady of Murcia' and by few as 'Darth Vader'.
Two branches branch off from this square, connecting with the Plaza Circular (Avda. Constitución) and with the roundabout connecting with the Madrid highway (Avda. de la Libertad), as envisaged in the original northward expansion plans. they designed the Circular Plaza as an articulating element of the new arteries.
In this way, the nearby Asylum for the Elderly and the Sanatorium of La Fuensanta were respected, which gives its name to the square and which, after its subsequent demolition, provided a site desired by any architect. A delicate and representative place to exhibit his talent where he designed a corner building that began the expansion in the sixties and that, as a backdrop, closed the largest urban transformation operation of the 20th century in Murcia city. And so they could already say "we are City", as we can now read on the advertising panel at the beginning of the Gran Vía in allusion to the aforementioned new tourist brand; therefore the controversy continues. This ode to concrete, which presides over the square, is not just another building but the beginning of new languages to move away from the traditionalist tendencies of Murcian architecture and which would later be followed by examples such as the Conver, the headquarters of Cajamurcia and the Moneo. The construction meant the first work of three designers, Antonio Escario Martínez, José Antonio Vidal and José Luis Vives, who would later establish themselves in Valencia. The building (1965-69) adapts and creates space with its broken floor plan and setbacks with a facade organized based on horizontal bands with exposed reinforced concrete plate breastplates combined with wooden carpentry. This facade is preserved by municipal planning and in 2014 it underwent a pioneering facelift due to the corrosion of the concrete, which changed it from gray to maroon, although only for a few days.
During Architecture Week 2019, COAMU placed a Docomomo plaque on its door accompanying another in recognition of the quality of its construction. This gesture is intended to avoid amnesia about the authorship of contemporary architecture and focus on its dissemination, thus vindicating the motto of the Murcian coat of arms 'Priscass Novissima Exaltat, et Amor'”.
Finally, from this 'carambola space', a welcoming cantilever led us inside the Hispania, where a concierge watched over the building at its entrance. A situation that evoked the video of the aforementioned song by Los Tontos by C. Tangana, which was recorded in the hall of the iconic and modern Torres Blancas building (Sáenz de Oiza) and whose lyrics say: "That even fools have a ceiling / And this time I'm going to hit even if it's a rebound." Well, more stupid than smart, we hope we have succeeded in this architectural walk "even if it is a rebound".
