Simó, Trinidad

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

A R C H I T E C T U R E  
M O D E R N I S M  IN T H E  
PAIS V A L E N C I A  
AN EMINENTLY URBAN AND BOURGEOIS PHENOMENON, 
GENERALLY SPEAKING PROGRESSIVE IN NATURE, MODERNISM 
WAS JUST ONE ASPECT OF A MUCH MORE WIDESPREAD 
AESTHETIC MOVEMENT. 
- 7 the País Valencia, Modernism 
ourished over a short period of M 1 time, during which it had as its 
setting the cities -Valencia, Castelló, Al- 
coi - and surrounding areas, and was 
particularly common in buildings that 
were used as second homes by people 
who lived in the urban areas. 
An eminently urban and bourgeois phe- 
nomenon, generally speaking progressive 
in nature, Modernism was just one aspect 
of a. much more widespread aesthetic 
movement. However, in the País Valencia 
it developed mainly in architecture, in 
some industries (to a certain extent in 
furniture, in a fair amount of ceramics, 
also in ironwork), and also, discreetly, in 
poster design and illustrations. But on the 
whole it developed as a fundamentally 
architectural fashion. 
I use the word fashion quite deliberately, 
though not in any disparaging sense. The 
word is used to draw a distinction, to 
understand the limits of a movement that 
failed to become generalized in the field 
of industry and was never quite un- 
derstood by society. Some architects ac- 
cepted it and only certain clients were en- 
thusiastic enough to subscribe to "its 
modernity". It always had its limitations: it 
was modest in its renovation of design, 
dubitative in tis creative demands, always 
allied to an eclectic spirit, limited in its so- 
cial acceptance, restricted in its appli- 
cation ... and, at the same time, important. 
lmportant because of its surprising pro- 
liferation at a time when Valencia was 
growing rapidly, allowing it to spread 
throughout the bourgeois districts, a large 
part of the 1879 Eixample, the most privi- 
leged part, and certain development 
areas within the old part of the city. 
It was also significant for the quality of 
some of its works, such as the Estació del 
Nord (by Demetrio Ribes, 1906), the Fe- 
rrer apartment block (by Vicente Ferrer, 
1908), the central market (by the 
Catalans Guardia Vial and Soler i March, 
191 0) and, to a lesser extent perhaps but 
equally unique, the Mercat de Colom (by 
Francisco Mora, 191 0). 
Its language followed the general lines of 
Catalan architectural Modernism. In fact, 
the main source was the Barcelona school 
of Architecture, where most of the archi- 
tects of the Valencia Modernist ge- 
neration had studied. But the direct influ- 
ence of certain architects also left its mark; 
Domenech i Montaner, especially in those 
buildings that combined Modernism and 
historicism; Sagnier, in buildings full of ele- 
gant, flowing plant designs, and, strangely 
enough, Gaudí. Gaudí's influence, not too 
important in the city, except for the Mer- 
cat de Colom, had ingenuous later echos 
in the Sanfuari de la Magdalena, in the 
province of Alicante*, in Novelda (by the 
engineer José Sala Sala, 1 91 6). 
Catalonia was not only a training centre 
but also a brother country, a neighbour 
open to Europe, with which a special alli- 
In Catalan, Alacant. 
ance was maintained, something that was 
understood without having to be put into 
words, something that came from their 
shared history, the language and the geo- 
graphical similarities. 
Two main trends predominated: the one 
that came from the French Ari Nouveau, 
with a profusion of plant jhemes whose 
treatment fell somewhere between natu- 
ralism and symbolism, and the sinuous 
lines of the classic coup de fouet; and the 
one from the Viennese Sezession, with its 
more geometrical design and its abstract 
motifs. In fact, these two trends, each in- 
terwoven with certain local and tradi- 
tional themes and both tinged with the 
eclecticism that had been the predomi- 
nant characteristic of the Valencian 
architecture of the end of the nineteenth 
century, eventually resulted in a particu- 
lar style, whose far from radical Moder- 
nism was possibly more flexible than ori- 
ginal. 
Also, the relatively common use of ceram- 
ics for fagades and interiors, especially in 
covering the bottoms of walls - a centu- 
ries old tradition - and the use of an illus- 
trative style which, without any kind of 
symbolism, ambiguity or subtlety, depicted 
ceriain aspects of the Valencia of 1900, 
especially those connected with its agri- 
culture or the happiness of its men and 
women, provided Valencian Modernism 
A R C H I T E C T U R E  
with popular and unpretentious local con- 
notations. This can be seen in any of the 
buildings mentioned above, but especially 
in those designed for public use, as for ex- 
ample the Estació del Nord and the mar- 
kets. The art of nineteenth century Va- 
lencian painters such as Bernard Ferran- 
dis, Fillol, C. Gómez or Agrasot, whose 
style depicted regional society and life 
and had been established since the sixties, 
must have weighed heavily in this "collec- 
tive imagination" with its references to the 
land, the city and the people themselves. 
And a special boost must have come 
around 1'900 from the works of two ar- 
tists, Blasco Ibáñez and Sorolla, the first 
with his novels on Valencian subiects, 
rooted in reality -Arroz y Tartana, Entre 
naranjos or Cañas y Barro-, and the 
second with his passionate, colourful 
paintings of the Valencian beaches, the 
fishermen and children. 
However, this popular aspect, in which the 
renovatory Modernist impulse, with its 
European inheritance, combined with the 
demands of local taste and traditional 
craftsman's techniques, never obscured 
Modernismfs eminently bourgeois char- 
acter. Modernism was created by the 
bourgeoisie and became established in 
the bourgeois city. 
At that particular moment, the turn of 
1900, in the confluence of imporiant 
technical breakthroughs in building, the 
crisis of academic languages and the 
beginning of modernity, the restructuring 
of the architectural profession, far-rea- 
ching city renovations and reforms, a new 
relationship with the city was also born, in 
which appeared the temptation of land 
for developing and building for invest- 
ment, with its increasing profitability. At 
the same time, and alongside al1 this, new 
aesthetic ideals were defined, amongst 
which was to be found the new .role of 
architecture, which was to contribute both 
to the definition of the home - the bour- 
geois home -, with al1 the attributes of 
patrimonial property and of the unmista- 
kable and irrepeatable beloved family 
seat, and to the definition of the new city 
that was growing up firmly established in 
its territory. 
And it was at this point that architecture 
acquired a new dimension. In its attempts 
to contribute to the shaping of city and 
home, it took on a more active role, in 
which persuasion and incitement adopted 
an imporiant intentionality. We find our- 
selves before architecture as image, the 
architecture that represents something, 
architecture as a symbol. 
But it was not only Valencia that em- 
braced Modernism. Other cities did, too, 
though here its reception was directly re- 
lated to the economic and other links that 
they had with the capital. Thus we find im- 
portant examples of Modernism in Alcoi, 
whose setting and aesthetics show similar 
characteristics to those of Valencia. We 
also come across it in the city of Castelló 
and in smaller towns which at that time 
underwent considerable growth thanks to 
the orange trade; Burriana and Onda are 
two curious enclaves of this type. 
For fifteen years, from 1900 to 191 5, 
Modernism manifested itself in bourgeois 
private architecture, in the homes of the 
middle class and in the occasional public 
building, where it achieved a remarkable 
quality; but in spite of these successes, 
history itself points out the limits of its ac- 
ceptance. The new City Hall (designed in 
1905 by F. Mora and C. Carbonell) re- 
turned once more to Classicism for its 
inspiration, and the regional and national 
exhibitions of 1909 and 191 0 escaped 
towards an architecture that was related 
to the Second French Empire and the art 
pompier. 
In fact, by 191 5, few architects were con- 
structing Modernist buildings, and in 1920 
the language belonged to the past. Hav- 
ing failed to create a school, it was no 
more than an episode. 


Modernism in the País Valencià

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