Spanish cities from above in 1855

[thun]

Well, of those posted so far, Málaga certainly changed the most in the last 150 years. Not to its advantage, I have to say. :/

[Nolke]

Yep, it has worsened a lot... But it still keeps a quite interesting old town though, it doesn't really deserve the bad reputation it has.

Here comes another picture of Malaga, taken by the same time as the drawing, from the very same location and also by a Frenchman (J. Laurent)

Originally Posted by el palmesano

great thread!! have you anything from Palma?

No, I'm afraid I don't... What a pity, that one would be great.

Thanks to all. I'll try to post more of these pictures when I have the time.

[Salazar Rick]

Fantastica fotografia

[VITORIA MAN]

great pics

[Ribarca]

Awesome! I wish I had a time machine!

[437.001]

Originally Posted by Nolke

Yep, it has worsened a lot... But it still keeps a quite interesting old town though, it doesn't really deserve the bad reputation it has.

When you say Malaga´s got a bad reputation, do you mean inside of Spain or abroad?
I don´t think Malaga has a bad reputation in Spain.
Torremolinos and most of the Western Costa del Sol is another thing though...

Here comes another picture of Malaga, taken by the same time as the drawing, from the very same location and also by a Frenchman (J. Laurent)

Interesting data you gave.
Certainly Malaga has something that makes it a bit more "big city" than Seville.
It isn´t bigger nor more beautiful than Seville, but it has something I can relate more to Barcelona or Valencia than to the classical Andalusian cities.
I guess it comes from this period. Thanks for the info!

I can tell that many old houses have been demolished in the quarters across the Guadalmedina...

[Nolke]

Originally Posted by 437.001

When you say Malaga´s got a bad reputation, do you mean inside of Spain or abroad?
I don´t think Malaga has a bad reputation in Spain.
Torremolinos and most of the Western Costa del Sol is another thing though...

Both. But, what I actually think is that it just has no reputation whatsoever. It's simply a city that doesn't attract people much, IMO.

Originally Posted by 437.001

Interesting data you gave.
Certainly Malaga has something that makes it a bit more "big city" than Seville.
It isn´t bigger nor more beautiful than Seville, but it has something I can relate more to Barcelona or Valencia than to the classical Andalusian cities.
I guess it comes from this period. Thanks for the info!

I know what you mean and agree. Obviously, those cities share the setting between the mountains and the sea :-P but in Malaga, 18th to early 20th c. sectors and buildings are more prominent and fit better the model of the burgeois city: big blocks with grand classicist façades, grid-plan expansions (even if the one in Málaga is very small) and that kind of stuff. In the inland Andalusian cities, while that modernity existed, the local tradition of not-so-regular building plans, low rise, structure around several patios, local-style decoration, ordinary façades and great interiors, etc. was continued during that time even for burgeois buildings and stands out much more nowadays. Some people say that the old towns of inland Andalusian cities look like huge rural towns (despite being mostly the result of 19th to 20th c. developments) which is quite true. It's part of their charm, I guess.

So, in short, Malaga's old town, or at least the most central part of it, represents some kind of europeanized, 19th c. model of city, which is quite exceptional in the region and complements it very well. Cadiz has some kind of similar burgeois-ambiance, but it's more like a late mercantile-period kind of city while Malaga would better represent an early-industrial town (Andalusia isn't always about moorish palaces or baroque churches, which is good). You know those inland cities, which had been metropolis for millennia, were already so big by that time that, even if in some cases they grew as much as the others, they didn't feel such a need to reform themselves to expand and increase density as these formerly smaller towns in the coast that were completely reshaped (Seville, for example, didn't change much its size from the 12th to the 20th c., as it was so huge that it simply had to increase or decrease its density a little bit to manage population fluctuations, which were huge btw), so they remained with a more pre-industrial look. That together with a lack of industrialization (and hence of a meaningful upper-middle class) is why Andalusia is the only urban region in Spain missing significant ensanches.

Originally Posted by 437.001

I can tell that many old houses have been demolished in the quarters across the Guadalmedina...

It's more like those quarters have actually been completely torn down (via a painful gentrification) and, what's worse, is that it's all very recent (it happened mostly during the last 20 years, specially during the bubble). Take a stroll with Google Street View and you'll see nothing but modern blocks and a lot of empty plots. On those places there used to be old, humble, protected houses whose modest tenants (b/c in those kind of old, humble quarters tenantship used to be dominant, even if it's still Spain) were threated or just forced to leave their homes (the buildings were consciously brought to ruin by their owners in order to expell the tenants and nullify the buildings' protection). After demolishing those houses, brand-new pastiche buildings (imitating older styles) for middle classes have been built. Yay the Spanish bubble.

Empty plots
Brand new buildings imitating old ones

I know you might know this story very well as this is a widespread pattern throughout the country. I just tell it for the rest of people to know more details of what we've been living here.

In fact, Malaga has a long history of real state speculation destroying its old town, much above the national average. This is some very good blog about it (its author used to be a forumer here): check out this particular entry, which speaks a bit about the history of the issue.
http://bodrios-arquitectonicos-centr...-dinamico.html

[Nolke]

Some pictures showing early 20th c. Malaga, to support the point. Modern buildings don't let see the signs of the former old town.


http://www.plusesmas.com/genealogia/...298_18204.html


http://www.plusesmas.com/genealogia/...298_18162.html


From the Book "Guía de Arquitectura de Málaga"


http://la-mirada-del-lobo.blogspot.f...a-antigua.html

But in the outskits, a typically Andalusian city remains or develops (notice some factories in the background):


http://www.plusesmas.com/genealogia/...298_18139.html

[TimothyR]

Outstanding photos. A glimpse of the past.

[el palmesano]

very nice pictures

[samba_man]

Amazing piece of history right here.