Bien: Palacio de la Magdalena y sus Jardines
Comunidad Autónoma: C.A. Cantabria
Provincia: Cantabria
Municipio: Santander
Categoría: Monumento
Código: (R.I.) - 51 - 0004592 - 00000
Registro: (R.I.) REGISTRO BIC INMUEBLES: Código definitivo
Fecha de Incoación: 23-01-1980
Fecha de Declaración: 12-02-1982
Fecha Boletín Incoación: 28-02-1980
Fecha Boletín Declaración: 10-05-1982
Disposición: REAL DECRETO
The Royal Palace of La Magdalena is a building located on the Magdalena peninsula , in front of the island of Mouro , in the city of Santander ( Cantabria , Spain ), and that was built between 1909 and 1911, by popular subscription, to house to the Spanish royal family . Work of the architects Javier González Riancho and Gonzalo Bringas Vega , it is located in the place where the old fortress of San Salvador de Hano was, which protected the entrance to the bay. It cost 700,000 pesetas in 1912 and was paid for by the city council and a large number of local families who performed a laborious crowdfunding, such as the 100,000 pesetas of the El Sardinero Society or the 1,000 pesetas of the Botín family. The financial problems to be able to pay for the work made the Executive Commission even buy a Christmas lottery to try their luck, without success. It was furnished in 1913, immediately becoming the summer residence of King Alfonso XIII and his family, who regularly occupied it until the proclamation of the Second Republic . In 1914, the stables were designed by González Riancho, which emulate a medieval English town with pointed roofs with steep slopes, exposed wooden frameworks, etc.
In 1977 Juan de Borbón sold the building to the city for 150 million pesetas. In 1982 it was declared a historical-artistic monument. Between 1993 and 1995 it was rehabilitated by the Santander City Council and the Menéndez Pelayo International University , which paid the interest on the loan, according to a project by Luis de la Fuente .
Today it is considered one of the most emblematic buildings in Santander and is one of the main tourist sites in the city.
As a former royal residence, its antecedent is the projection of a previous one in the Sardinero , frustrated by the revolution that broke out in 1868, to establish with a building the royal and bourgeois summer resort that was being repeated in those years, which promoted growth from the city. The place of La Magdalena was not dehumanized; archaeological excavations date human presence to the 1st century, in Roman times , where docks and various objects have been found. The Bringas Vega and González Riancho project won a competition called by the city council. Peter Burke said of the palace, dating back to 1912:
From that moment, and until the summer of 1930 included, the Magdalena Palace in Santander has been the royal seat and a point of social and political attraction for journalists and politicians, for Spanish public life.
Within the framework of the workers' revolts of 1911 in Santander, the palace suffered stoppages in its construction due to strikes by its stonemasons, and it could not be handed over to royalty until 1912. King Alfonso XIII was informed promptly of the progress of the construction, and on January 21, 1912 he received in audience the Commission (constituted by the president of the Provincial Council, Ramón Pérez Eizaguirre; the mayor, Ángel Lloreda; the former deputy to Cortes Pedro Acha and Dr. Manuel Sánchez-Saráchaga ) to specify details of the next inauguration. Once the building was completed, Queen Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg herself directed its furnishing and decoration. Mrs.Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg refers to the royal family summers in the palace this way:
But where I liked to go the most was the Magdalena Palace in Santander, because there we were freer, we lived completely as "private individuals."
However, the Infanta criticizes the rehabilitation at the end of the century, which gives an idea of ??the profound reforms, in addition to the adaptation for offices and meeting rooms, that the building has suffered as the headquarters of the international university.
We went to Santander, which I had not seen since we left in 1931, more than 70 years (...). I saw the Magdalena Palace ... the palace seemed to me, a horror ...! Don't talk to me ... They have changed it, upstairs is fine but downstairs there was no reason to change it, because it was all very nice. They have made a huge staircase with many ornaments, you don't know how horrendous it is, with the colored glass doors (...). But on the outside it is the same as before, fantastic!
Don Juan de Borbon sold the palace to the city of Santander in 1977 for 150 million pesetas, thus returning to its original owner, October 5 This sale took place during the first term of Juan Hormaechea ( Alianza Popular ) as elected mayor of Santander , surrounded by strong controversy, since the left parties considered that it was the city of Santander itself that gave this property to the Royal House in 1911. Although it had previously been requisitioned during the Republican period to install the International University, the activities of They stopped during the Civil War and did not restart until 1938 , then based in theSan Rafael hospital .
In 1918 , summer courses began to be taught at the palace, as evidenced by the agreement with the University of Liverpool . These were the germ of the Menéndez Pelayo International University , born from an original International Summer University of Santander ( August 23 , 1932 ). However, from April 1931 , when the Republic was proclaimed, until that date, the palace remained empty. The university took the palace as its headquarters from the beginning, according to the decree signed by the then president of the Second Republic, the result of the efforts of Minister Fernando de los Ríos andFrancisco Barnes . ts first president was Ramón Menéndez Pidal and its first secretary, Pedro Salinas .
After the Civil War , the Menéndez Pelayo University was installed in the Hospital de San Rafael , returning to the palace at the end of 1949. Since then, many important conferences and workshops have been held in the palace worldwide, exhibitions, musical competitions, etc. . An example of this is the meeting that in 1952
Architecture
The palace is located on the peninsula of La Magdalena , a public peri-urban park that acts as the axis between the maritime areas of El Sardinero and the downtown area, where the area of ??the promenade and the Pereda gardens stand out . The peninsula, located in one of the mouths of the bay of Santander , stands out for its wooded vegetation. It also has a beach, La Magdalena , a minizoo and a children's playground, as well as various buildings.
It is a work of eclectic style , which combines English influences, evident in the arrangement of the exterior masses, abundance of the chimneys, the shape of the windows, etc., with contributions of French style, such as the double flight staircase of the main staircase, the asymmetry of the bodies of the building, etc., in addition to traces taken from Baroque mountain architecture . 16 Its construction popularized an eclectic-regionalist sub-style in Cantabria, whose greatest exponent is the palace itself, and which comes from the English picturesque palace of Los Hornillos .
The planimetric scheme is based on an elongated body measuring 91x21 m, with another that comes out to the north, 20 m on each side. Its elevations are asymmetrical and the multitude of recesses and projections give the impression that it consists of several twinned bodies.
It consists of two entrances, one to the north for carriages, with a portico, and the other to the south, which is the main one, with two octagonal towers and a staircase with double sections. The building is made of masonry stone from Cueto , 2 and has slate roofs . Inside, the reception rooms that keep some paintings of interest, by authors such as Benedito , Sorolla , Sotomayor , etc., stand out.
Influence
In the city
The construction of the palace, since then a symbol of the city, had three immediate effects: to establish Santander as a summer resort for the Spanish high class, to spread its eclectic mountain-English style, raising the quality of the new architecture of the city, and to divert urban growth towards him.
The award-winning General Plan for the Northwest and East Expansion for Santander , which Lavín himself signed in 1910 , broadens the urban effects of this situation and consolidates the definitive investment of growth lines: the extension of the city, which is no longer directed towards the Eixample area in Maliaño, expanding the port space, but extending through the outskirts of the Sardinero (...) reflecting the confidence in an economic future based on tourist activity.
The Palacio de la Magdalena has been the magical talisman that transforms those corners, urbanizing them.
Paradigm of this new growth is the Avenida de la Reina Victoria , surrounded by trees, small gardens and mansions, located high above the beach of Los Peligros , which links the center of Santander, bordering the coast, with the Magdalena peninsula and the Sardinero. Thus, the port crisis of the city, which lived off the naval trade, was replaced thanks to the boom in tourism. 18 Today it is a recognizable symbol of the city.
The palace is mentioned in a poem by José Hierro , in love with Santander, when he says:
Miguel de Unamuno begins by talking about the place: « Contemplating from here, from this vantage point of the coastal rock of La Magdalena, Santander ». 21 Thirty-two of his poems were compiled by his friends in a book entitled Cuadernos de la Magdalena , composed while he was at the International Summer University. 22 It is also visited and mentioned by other illustrious authors, such as Manuel Toussaint in Excursions from Madrid 23 or the Cantabrian Gerardo Diego , who sets it as the background for some of his scenes.
Since 2011, it has been used by the Spanish television network Antena 3 for the filming of its television production Gran Hotel .
In 2016 it was the scene of the wedding of the actors Javier Veiga and Marta Hazas
The stables
Stables complex.
The stables complex was built by Javier González Riancho in 1914 around a small square, on flat land next to the beach. Their bodies, like an idealized rural village with turrets and pointed roofs not exempt from certain Georgian traits , have two heights. When the university was installed there, they were converted into a student residence.
Before being transferred to the university in 1949, they had been used by the Francoist side as a concentration camp for prisoners (from the end of August 1937 to November 1939), which, despite not having relatively poor hygienic conditions , came to contain more than 1,600 inmates, when it had been initially raised to 600. more than 1,600 roonmates were brought en masse to the beach of La Magdalena to bathe, even in winter.
In 1977, with the purchase of the peninsula by the Santander city council, the university was allowed to use both the palace and the stables, leaving the rest of the peninsula as a municipal public park.
Today the first floor is dedicated to modernly equipped conference rooms, with translation rooms, projectors, etc. 30 They also have a dining room.
FOnt: (
visit link)