The body of the nation. Architecture, town planning and the capital city in the early years of Franco’s regime

Authors

  • Zira Box

Keywords:

Imperial capital, francoist architecture, Madrid, representative facade

Abstract

From April 1939, the architectural and town-planning labour of francoist New Regime became a political activity subjected to New State’s requirements. Through an organic conception well theorized, professionals sympathetic to dictatorship planned to build the body of a Nation supposedly redeemed. The challenge was to create a material continent where the eternal values of the Spanish Soul could embody; to construct a body appropriate to Spanish grandeur that acquired special magnificence through Madrid, the imperial capital of the New Spain. This article analyzes the politization of both, architecture and urbanism, as well as the implications the imperial capital of Madrid had.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES