Zaragoza at the beginning of the 20th century undergoes an important urban and economic transformation.
With the urbanization of the Santa Engracia orchard, which became a residential area, the Sagasta promenade, which was created in imitation of the French boulevards of the time, the Pamplona promenade and the remodeling of the Lanuza square with the construction of the Market Central, the urban expansion of the city is a reality.
For their part, the industrial bourgeoisie and the banks will play an important role in the projection of the local and regional economy, although in the Aragonese case this economic boom will be felt differently than in Catalonia.
Modernism or "Art Nouveau" reached its highest expression in European countries between 1890 and 1915 and mainly affects architecture, a discipline that integrates most of the arts. Its intention is to be naturalistic with a clear predominance of curved shapes and lines.
Although the emergence of the Modernist style in Zaragoza was very late and was found to be especially linked to the spread of Catalan Modernism by the prestigious architect Lluís Doménech y Montaner, the city has beautiful and beautiful examples of the architecture that has been called "floral style".
This architecture is developed in Aragon in a special way in the decade of the years 1905-1915, coinciding with the great moment of the rise of the bourgeois economy. This peculiar architectural style, of a particularly urban character, is centered almost exclusively in Zaragoza with very few examples in the Aragonese area.
Its architects, Ricardo Magdalena, Félix Navarro, Manuel Martínez de Ubargo, Francisco Albiñana, Luis de la Figuera and others, incorporate beautiful metal structures into the modernist architecture of the city, such as the Central Market complex and the so-called "Music Kiosk", in addition to developing and promoting the handicrafts of artistic forging and locksmithing, decorative carpentry, glassware and a long series of trades that would fill the buildings of this era with beauty.
The buildings are invaded by a very fleshy vegetal ornamentation, with lively rhythms and a clear predominance of the floral theme. This decoration is developed in the jambs, lintels, columns, etc. The facades of the buildings are completed with the use of wrought iron on balconies, railings and viewpoints, using glass in the latter to complete the decoration. In some houses, exposed brick and ashlar stone are used, following the old Renaissance and Mudejar traditions. A new material, cement, will be used frequently.
It is advisable to start the tour at the New Market of Zaragoza or Central Market, a building that falls between those that correspond to a premodernist phase in which traces of historical artistic styles are still accused.
Its architect, Félix Navarro, designed it in 1895 and it was inaugurated in 1903. The same metal reinforcement technique was used in its construction as in the Eiffel Tower. The building has two floors (basement and market floor), the upper one has a basilica structure with three naves, separated by metal columns with ringed shafts and cubic capitals of Granada tradition. It stands on a platform with steps on the fronts and in the center of the lateral lines. Its basic structural element, iron, was cast in the Pellicer and Juan workshops in Zaragoza. The urbanization of the Plaza de Lanuza with its beautiful arcades on metal columns is designed by the municipal architect Ricardo Magdalena.
Nearby, on Calle Manifestación, nº 16, is a house belonging to Ricardo Magdalena and on Calle Prudencio, nº 25, a building with an exposed brick facade, but with a beautiful floral decoration in the entrance arch and an admirable forge in its viewpoints.
The building on calle Espoz y Mina, nº 31, is a construction by Ricardo Magdalena on calle Jaime I, nº 35, is the Casa Marín Corralé, by Francisco de Albiñana (1917), and in San Jorge, nº 3, that of Juan Fabiani, designed by Ricardo Magdalena.
In the direction of Plaza de España and at Coso, nº 29, stands the well-known façade of the Merchant, Industrial and Agricultural Centre, the work of Francisco de Albiñana (1914).
The ornamentation is very baroque and motley, in a special way it is located under the cantilever of the balconies and viewpoints. The façade consists of a ground floor and three floors. The columns are decorated with a beautiful floral crown capital.
Further up, on calle Alfonso I, nº 2, and on the corner of the Coso is Casa Molins with a beautiful patio flooded with floral decoration and a determined modernist façade designed by Ricardo Magdalena.
Before reaching Paseo de Sagasta, you must visit the house on Calle Cadiz nº12 and the house No. 2 on Calle Capitán Portolés , both with exposed brick facades.
In the Plaza de los Sitios rises the Monument to the Sites of Zaragoza.
Made by Agustín Querol in 1908, it narrates the exploits of the People of Zaragoza in the War of Independence. It is integrated into a plinth raised on a graceful pedestal. The characters appear between mists and curtains and the monument is crowned by a bronze female figure that represents an abstract vision of Zaragoza marching whipped by the wind. This historical memory was part of the Hispano-French Exhibition that was held that year. The exhibition it was in its architectural monuments a whole sample of renaissance modernism.
In the same Plaza de los Sitios, two of the buildings used in this exhibition still stand: The Provincial Museum and the School of Arts of Zaragoza.
A pavilion that was used has come down to us and is currently installed in the Primo de Rivera park. The so-called "Kiosk for Music", built according to a design by Manuel Martínez de Ubargo, is mounted on an octagonal stone platform and has a baldachin-shaped structure. Some fine cast-iron columns support a warped roof with an elliptical dome, topped with ceramic that is vividly coloured. The wrought iron manifests linear, curved and elastic rhythms that, together with the vegetal stylizations of the railing, create a definitively modernist air in the whole.
On Calle Lagasca you can visit the buildings numbers 4 and 6, and very close by, the one on calle Cervantes, nº 5. They present facades of historicist type that presents a taste of the time in the decoration and forging of balconies and windows.
Very close to these buildings is the Paseo Sagasta, a visit to it allows us to contemplate the most beautiful and rich buildings of the time. It still retains, to a certain extent, the air of the typical French boulevards with its magnificent grove in the center.
At nº 11 is Casa Juncosa, a project by Ricardo Magdalena (1906) and where a very pure modernist style is accused that dispenses with historicist elements, that is, exposed brick or eaves are not used of wood. The building has five floors and the façade is divided into three vertical stripes. The vegetal and floral decoration was executed in the carved stone, in the capitals of the attached columns and in the forging of the balconies and windows.
Also noteworthy is the floral decoration of the patio ceiling and the lobed openings of the stairwell closed with stained glass, where we will highlight the yellow and violet spots and a splendid aquatic flora. The Juncosa house is, without a doubt, the most significant work of the time and was in turn the most expensive of the moment, and therefore difficult to repeat by the Zaragoza bourgeoisie.
Next, at number 13, Casa Retuerta, built by R. Magdalena and a contemporary of the previous one. The ornamentation is located almost exclusively in the crest that finishes off the facade and its compositional effect is achieved through the use of the line. The viewpoint of the chamfer acquires an extraordinary importance.
House No. 19 is a design by Ricardo Magdalena, and No. 40, with an exposed brick façade, is by Luis de la Figuera.
The Casa Carlos Palao, at number 76, was built by R. Magdalena. Only the lower floor is decorated with columns with floral capitals, for the rest of the floors the ornamentation has been achieved through the combination of curved and wavy lines.
At 37 Paseo de Ruiseñores, the Casa Emilio Ostalé, with a beautiful wrought iron access gate and a sculptural relief by Dionisio Lasuén. At No. 39, the Coast House, with viewpoints that have triple-span arches and the use of ceramics and stained glass.
At Maestro Extremiana, nº 1, there is another house built by Luis de la Figuera.
It has columns with floral capitals that flank the accesses to the garden. The door and the vestibule have a beautiful decoration with vegetable and floral marine-type motifs.
The Puente de América, over the Imperial Canal of Aragon, built in iron and located at the end of Paseo de Cuellar, is also modernist in style.
A brief list of other important monuments that populate the city would be the following:
If you want Ample your information on Aragon you can begin crossing some Monasteries, our 40 Castles another interesting route is the Mudejar, Patrimony of the Humanity, also you can extend your cultural knowledge on Aragón examining its municipal and institutional heraldica without forgetting, of course, some of its emblematicas figures as San George Pattern of Aragon or its personages I illustrate adding to these data a minimum crossed by its history o some books.
Also Aragón enjoys a diverse and varied Nature where passing by plants, animals, or landscapes we can arrive at a fantastic bestiario that lives in its monuments.
The information will not be complete without a stroll by its three provinces: Zaragoza, Teruel y Huesca y sus varied Regions, with shutdown in some of its spectacular landscapes like Ordesa or the Moncayo or by opposition in the valle of the Ebro.
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Zaragoza city: Modernism in Zaragoza.
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