New Melilla

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Country Spain
Modernist expansion1901
New Melilla
Melilla La Nueva
Ensanche
Interactive map of New Melilla
Country Spain
Autonomous City Melilla
Modernist expansion1901

New Melilla or Ensanche de Melilla is the expansion of the Spanish city of Melilla that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[1][2]

From the end of the 19th century, a period of splendor began in Melilla, creating a modern city. Among Spanish cities, Melilla is second only to Barcelona in its representation of modernist art. The city also has the greatest representation of modernism in Africa.[3][4]

More than a thousand historically registered buildings are found in the Historic-Artistic Complex of the City of Melilla, a Bien de Interés Cultural, or cultural property of Spain. The buildings are spread throughout the central expansion and its neighborhoods.

Many of the buildings are the work of a Melilla-based architect from the Barcelona School, Enrique Nieto. Nieto, a follower of the architect Lluis Domènech i Montaner produced an extensive body of modernist work. Nieto's floral modernist buildings are especially noteworthy. Other modernist architects in Melilla were Emilio Alzugaray Goicoechea and Tomás Moreno Lázaro. In the 1930s, Art Deco took hold in Melilla's architecture, and architects such as Francisco Hernanz Martínez and Lorenzo Ros Costa created spectacular buildings in the city's neighbourhoods.[5][6][7][8]

Exterior forts

Melilla's exterior forts are located at a considerable distance from each other. They were built in the second half of the 19th century in a neo-medieval style, an unusual architectural style for that era in Spain.[9]

They are built with local stone for the walls and bricks for the arches and vaults.[9] These obsolete fortification techniques, incapable of facing modern artillery, were sufficient because the Riffian Kabyle people, the enemy from which they had to defend Melilla, did not have artillery.[citation needed]

Historicisms

In Melilla, historic revival architecture is primarily found in public buildings and places of worship.[citation needed]

Eclecticisms

Eclecticism in Melilla mixes rigid structural elements with richer ornamentation, such as wrought iron and flying cornices.[10] The most notable practitioner of eclecticism in Melilla was Droctoveo Castañón, who primarily built private residences.[10]

Modernism

New Melilla's architecture is defined by modernism, a continuation of the Rococo style, with rich ornamentation, a variety of evocative shapes and varied colors.[11]

Enrique Nieto

Enrique Nieto is credited with introducing modernist architecture to Melilla.[10]

Emilio Alzugaray

Art Deco

The Art Deco Monumental Cinema Sport, constructed between 1930 and 1932, is the masterpiece of architect Lorenzo Ros y Costa.[12]

Enrique Nieto

Francisco Hernanz

Francisco Hernanz built in an aerodynamic art deco style, with sober lines and almost no decoration.[13]

Rationalism

Industrial architecture

Modern architecture

References

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