Permanence, Adaptation or Reuse: Transformations in the convents of the city of Seville

Abstract

Abstract:The rich history of the city of Seville has provided it a wide architectural heritage, which is necessary to preserve. In the early twentieth century, Spain began to express concern about the preservation of its historical legacy, trying to protect historical and artistic monuments. However, it was not until the arrival of the democratic political system that this awareness of preservation took true precedence over other matters. In this temporal context, the young Andalusian Government was looking for definitive venues for the new institutions, with the target of the upcoming Universal Exhibition of Seville in 1992. The recognized architect Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra was commissioned to study a range of buildings in the city susceptible of hosting new uses, published in the book "Cien Edificios de Sevilla, susceptibles de reutilización para usos institucionales". This work has become a reference catalogue of Sevillian-built heritage. Looking at the one hundred (100) buildings studied there, all of a certain scale in the city, 18 are convents or exconvents. This paper will try to find out the destiny of these buildings themselves as monastic heritage, but also in relationship to other types of heritages.

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“…The same process of State-mandated confiscation of religious buildings took place there, through the so-called Disentailments and Confiscations (Mendizábal, Espartero or Madoz), auctioning and converting them for a variety of new uses. Among these, military use would stand out due to the experience of precedent wars during the French Invasion of Spain in the 19th century [13] (p. 283).…”

“…There are hypotheses such as that of Tejeira Davis [25] (pp. [12][13][14], that place the new buildings on the traces of the old convent. Specifically, the National Theater would be partially built on what were the orchards and the cloister of nuns, since other parts were outside the current built area and have disappeared.…”