Casa Antón, modernist building in Ferrol
Sometimes you arrive at a place on the occasion of an event or to visit a specific corner, and discover a tourist attraction of which you had no knowledge and becomes one of the great surprises of your trip.
This has happened to me in trip to Ferrol, in the province of A Coruña, which I did on the occasion of the FEVINO international fair.
I knew from this Galician city that I had as one of its attractions the possibility of visiting thehistorical facilities of its Arsenal and military shipyards.
Modernist facade of the Jofre Theater in Ferrol
But during my stay I discovered a very interesting Modernism Route, with several buildings of said architecture that give a special character to Magdalena neighborhood.
To understand the origin of what has now been presented as a thematic tourist route to walk around Ferrol center, we must go back to the time in which the neighborhood was built.
Currently the Magdalena neighborhood It is the true social and commercial center of Ferrol, but until the mid-18th century it was only a small fishing village on the banks of this Galician estuary.
Magdalena neighborhood in Ferrol
The approval in 1761 of the construction of the Magdalena neighborhood by the King Carlos III It was an outstanding urban proposal at that time for its rationalist design.
Old Swiss hotel, modernist building in Ferrol
He Magdalena neighborhood was born in parallel to the construction of the arsenals and the military shipyard that would change forever the life of the old Ferrol.
With its rectangular layout in the form of a chocolate tablet, with all its parallel and perpendicular streets, it was populated by classicist buildings that for the first time in Galicia they showed large wrought iron balconies and glazed galleries, an image now so characteristic of that region.
Casa Munduate, modernist building in Ferrol
It was at the beginning of the 20th century when many began to be built modernist buildings, with rounded shapes and decoration with elements of nature.
You will surely be surprised by the presence in Ferrol of numerous examples of this architectural style so creative that it developed in parallel in large European cities, as in Barcelona, or with the variantart noveau in Brussels, as I could see in one of my last travel to Flanders.
Casa Romero, modernist building in Ferrol
Modernist buildings in Ferrol
This is due in large part to the work of the municipal architect. Rodolfo Ucha Piñeiro, who was the driving force behind the construction of several of the modernist buildings of Ferrol.
On the city map you can get on the Ferrol Tourist Office (in the Spain Square, or in summer also at the information point of the old port) you have indicated the location of the most prominent modernist buildings of the Galician city.
Rodríguez Trigo House, modernist building in Ferrol
So, in the central Galicia square where the main door of the Military Arsenal, you find the Jofre Theater, whose facade was made in 1920 by the aforementioned Rodolfo Ucha.
In one of the corners of the same square you have one of the most important modernist buildings of Ferrol, the Romero Housealso from Ucha, which you will recognize by its white facade and the closed viewing balconies of its corners.
Building of the old Bank of La Coruña, modernist building in Ferrol
Another building that will also get your attention is the Rodriguez Wheat House (c / Dolores 77), from 1914, conceived as an urban villa with large closed viewpoints.
Almost opposite is the old building Bank of La Coruña, which shows the character of an official building of the time.
Ferrolano Casino, modernist building in Ferrol
In the real street you have the building of Swiss hotel, designed by Ucha in 1913 for homes and businesses, but that was finally the headquarters of the aforementioned hotel. Its architectural style is eclectic with Parisian influence.
Also with design of Ucha, another building to point out is the Munduate House (c / Magdalena 61), of 1910, in which the carpentry and wrought iron of clear modernist style stand out.
Fish Market, modernist building in Ferrol
Finally I want to highlight the Anton House, in the western limit of Magdalena neighborhood, in front of the building of Tourism Parador.
It is a project carried out by Ucha in 1919 for a mayor of Ferrol, where above all the red exterior viewpoints of the corner of what was a single-family house with three floors, now occupied by a religious school.
Casa Antón, modernist building in Ferrol
Do not forget to look at the pergola of the entrance and in the garden with stairs.
A good help that I used to follow the Modernism Route in Ferrol is the Ferrol Tourism app whose download you can access from the official website itself.
Old Swiss hotel, modernist building in Ferrol
In sum, an interesting route that will give you a different image of what you might expect to see in your visit to Ferrol.
