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01·B8 CASTRO DE ELVIÑA s. III a.C.
Castro is the name given to the sett-
lements that Celtics raised at the end
of Bronze Age in the N.W. of Iberia
Peninsula. All of them share common
characteristics as location in a high
and fortified point. Inside, there are
oval plan dwellings laid out in neigh-
borhoods, organized as clusters. This
castro suffered Romanization and
now the bullying of the city.
02·E2 HÉRCULES’ TOWER 40
Caio Sevio Lupo
This is the most ancient lighthouse in
the world, still on use. Its construction
is attributed to Hercules. The external
masonry and the torch are due to a re-
form held by Italian engineer, Giannini
during the XVIII century. In 1990 a mu-
seum was built taking advantage of the
archaeological excavations at the bo-
ttom of the tower. Surrounding lands-
cape has been enriched within sculp-
tures shaping some narrow corners.
03·C3 ROYAL COLLEGIATE 1150
OF SANTA MARÍA DO CAMPO
Juan de Ciórraga
Only the apse and the church’s nave
remain from the original building,
completed in 1302. In 1889 Juan de
Ciórraga enlarges the plant and builds
a new façade in a Neo-Lombard style,
embedding on it parts of the Romanic
one. Both clock towers remain on their
original position.
04·C3 SANTIAGO’S CHURCH 1217
It was linked since its origin to San-
tiago’s pilgrimage route. This was the
starting point for pilgrims who arrived
by ship. It shows two Romanic faça-
des, one within a sculpture of apostle
Santiago riding a horse in the lintel of
the main gate. In the same position
but in a lateral façade there is a su-
perb Agnus Dei. All kind of sins are
showed on engraved corbels at the
stone cornice.
05·C3 SANTA BÁRBARA’S s. XV
CONVENT
This convent was founded at the end
of the XV century. Although there is
not much more remaining from that
time other than a relief over the main
door. The convent opens to a quiet
piazza. It is a small urban space, a li-
ttle bit mistreated but still showing the
flavour of a city that has gone.
06·B4 SAN ANTÓN’S CASTLE 1587
Pedro Rodríguez Muñiz
The castle is situated on a rocky islet
in the bay. Today it has nearly lost this
insular condition. At present it houses
the city’s Archaeological Museum,
where interesting traces of the Celtic
Galicia are shown.
07·C3 CORNIDE’S PALACE s. XVII
Francisco Llobet
A strange building of sturdy granite
stonework. Built in accordance with
the taste of its owner, the wise man
Diego Cornide. In 1965 a local busi-
nessman gifted the building to Fran-
cisco Franco, head of the State at the
moment.
08·C3 SAN JORGE’S CHURCH 1693
This is one of the scarce Baroque buil-
dings in a city that has lost many his-
torical structures in the fight against
invaders or in urban speculative ope-
rations. This church belongs to an old
convent demolished in 1927. The de-
signers were architects belonging to
Santiago’s cathedral works.
09·C3 CAPITANÍA PALACE 1748
At the XVIII century new institutions
and official buildings were raised in
Galician cities. Architects and military
engineers, either French or Spanish
indoctrinated in France, arrived here
to build in Francophile way. This pala-
ce, which holds the Army Headquar-
ters in Galicia, was designed by Juan
Vergel in 1740 in accordance with the
referred premises.
10·C4 PAREDES HOUSES 1779
These buildings, named as their ow-
ner was are example of how the bour-
geois at XVIII endorsed aesthetic cri-
teria used in the design of the quais
at the greater French cities. Only an
economic crisis prevents the engineer
Martín Cermeño to conclude the pro-
ject to endow a so charming façade
to the sea.
11·D3 CHAPEL OF THE CEMETERY1833
Alejo Andrade
It was built in 1833 as part of the city
new cemetery. The design of this
small building is a copy of a similar
project of the Royal architect Juan de
Villanueva, drawn but never built. This
architecture shows a clear Palladian
scheme.
12·C3 WALLS AND GARDEN 1834
José María de Noya
The romantic Garden of San Carlos
results of the refurbishment of a ter-
rain vague existent amid two of the
city walls to accommodate the sepul-
chre of the British general Moore, fall-
en in Corunna battle at the beginning
of XIX. Originally walls bounded sea-
shore. Large parts of the walls were
demolished to make room for diverse
urban enlargements like Ensanche
area or Maria Pita square.
13·C4 ROSALÍA DE CASTRO 1841
THEATRE
In 1835 a confiscation of religious pro-
perties made room for the creation of
equipments in cities. In Corunna as
result of one of these operations was
built a Theatre and the Palace for the
Province Government, all under the
same roof. In 1993 Manuel Gallego
launches an inner rehabilitation that
enhances the building.
14·C3 ATOCHA BARRACKS 1855
The widest historic structure built wi-
thin the city. Its grim neoclassical com-
position adequate both to micro and
macro scales, short or long viewing
distances. Actually it’s already in disu-
se whilst it has been claimed for diver-
se public functions.
15·C3 MARÍA PITA SQUARE 1859
José María de Noya
The flattening of city ramparts allowed
the location of large barracks, a New
City Hall, a square and dwellings.
Noya drafted the project and Faustino
Domínguez the building regulations to
design residential buildings in three of
the sides of the square. Housing was
a private enterprise.
16·C4 MÉNDEZ NÚÑEZ GARDENS 1860
Celedonio Uribe
They were seed in terrains gained to
the sea by refilling this area with the
rubbles of the demolished walls. Sin-
ce those days gardens were enriched
with kiosks, institutional buildings and
monuments of uneven quality. Superb
trees and cosy corners make corun-
nians feel this space as the living
room of the city.
17·C3 GALERÍAS DA MARIÑA 1862
Juan de Ciórraga
Best of architecture, craftsmanship
and industry were put together here
to the service of the bourgeois hou-
sing plans. Behind, the paradoxical
reference to a vernacular device: the
gallery. First house of the row, named
Casa Rey and designed by Julio Ga-
lán is the most outstanding. It shows
an art deco façade, enriched with car-
yatids in a superb composition.
18·D4 DOWNTOWN BOURGEOIS 1920
HOUSING
The area so called “Ensanche” is the
very centre of the city and to the time,
the open air collection of the best
modernist architecture nearby some
structures with no interest at all. Here
we found outstanding designs from
most recognized local architects as
Juan de Ciórraga, López Hernández,
Leoncio Bescansa and Julio Galán.
Façades are exquisitely ornamented,
many painted in a very imaginative way.
19·D4 BANCO PASTOR 1920
HEADQUARTERS
Antonio Tenreiro Brochón y
Juan José Estellés
The architects designed this venera-
ble skyscraper, drinking directly in the
waters of the fountainheads of Chica-
go. The highest building of Spain in
those days and headquarters of the
most important Galician bank hides
behind his stone skin one of the first
concrete structures of the city.
20·D3 OLD PROVINCE PRISON 1927
Juan Álvarez de Mendoza
This is a replication of the Barce-
lona “Prisión Modelo” (1904), took
as referent because “complies with
requirements of science and law”.
Approaches to a panoptic scheme
and exudes part of the city memory.
Since it lost its use it languishes whilst
the actions of diverse groups which
reivindicate this edifice to be put at
the service of popular culture.
21·D4 VILLA MOLINA 1928
González Villar
Inside the so called “Garden City” be-
tween narrow houses, there is a cubic
box. Standing on a plinth, it dominates
the Atlantic. Inside: two homes and a
shop. As adornment, just two blue ce-
ramic strips running throw all the four
façades.
22·C3 SAN AGUSTÍN MARKET 1932
Santiago Rey Pedreira y
Antonio Tenreiro Brochón
A bold laminar parabolic vault, rela-
ted to Freyssinet’s achievements in
Reims. It stitches the open wound
existent between the old city and its
suburb. The bright space seems de-
signed to accommodate an open air
rural market in any hamlet.
23·A7 COCA COLA FACTORY 1960
Andrés Fernández-Albalat y
Antonio Tenreiro Brochón
A box of glass and steel where an
unknown drink is produced. A process
visible to everybody, happening at the
gate of the city. This is the first sam-
ple of international style architecture
arrived to Galicia. A recent extension
harms the image of building.
24·B6 HOUSING UNIT NUMBER 5 1964
José Antonio Corrales
A large scale project, compound of
social housing blocks, commercial
venues, a market, a church, a kinder-
garten and all kinds of open spaces
defined a “city away from the city”,
for decades. The diverse pieces are
linked one to each other by a network
of raised pedestrian paths which re-
member Bakema’s ideas.
25·C3 MUSEUM OF SACRAL ART 1982
Manolo Gallego Jorreto
This building was designed to house
and exhibit the treasure of the nei-
ghbouring Colegiata church. Natural
light, material textures, colour and the
sculptural rail dedicate themselves to
the service of the intimate scale of
space. The façade protects discreetly
the treasure in an historic environ-
ment.
26·D3 FINE ARTS MUSEUM 1988
Manuel Gallego Jorreto
It is situated between two uneven
urban structures: a narrow historical
one and other, contemporary, with
no interesting buildings at all. Project
takes care of ancient Capuchina con-
vent (1715) and also sets up a neu-
tral and light box, organized within a
flexible layout. In between, a secret
alley. Awarded with the 1995 National
Architecture Prize.
27·D3 DOMUS MUSEUM 1993
Arata Isozaki y César Portela
A plot in a quarry, hanged over the
Atlantic. Built in the last free urban
space it the city waterfront. This is the
position of a territorial scale building,
whose appearance remembers in
some way an odd ship beached besi-
de the city. It was projected by Isozaki
and directed by Portela.
28·F4 SAN PEDRO PARK AND 1993
VIEWPOINT
In 1933 the world-wide bellicose ten-
sion provokes fortification of this hill
that dominates the whole city and the
mouth of several estuaries. Here the
army settled gigantic batteries. Aban-
doned after haven’t ever been used,
this canons are the scenario for a
peaceful walk that allows to recognise
from above the morphology of the city.
29·A5 UNIVERSITY HEALTH AREA 1995
Reboredo, de Pineda, las Ca-
sas, Amado.
In the wide sylvan plot of the abando-
ned pest house there was still place
for a new hospital, the faculty of health
sciences and a canteen. All this struc-
tures set side by side with modernist
pavilions, woodland of centenary
eucalyptus and splendid sights in a
harmonious group. The university buil-
ding was awarded with the Spanish
National Architecture prize in 1997.
30·B7 XOANA CAPDEVIELLE 2003
FACILITY José R.
Garitaonaendía de Vera
This university building houses a com-
plex program and focuses the gate to
the recently founded university cam-
pus. Formally it presents itself to us
like a metallic container holding effi-
ciently quite different functions inside.
31·C3 LUIS SEOANE ARTS 2003
CENTRE Juan Creus y Cova-
donga Carrasco
Two quite young architects won the
contest for redesigning an old military
barrack, located in a notable place of
the city. A structure with no other in-
terests more than a hidden courtyard
that now on becomes the centre of the
operation. The renewed building con-
solidates as urban milestone, where
vibrant things happen on its carefully
designed spaces.
32·D4 CAIXAGALICIA CULTURAL 2006
CENTER Nicholas Grimshaw
Opened to two neighbourhoods of
quite different scales, this building
aims a unitary answer through a com-
mon enveloping and establishing an
inner road that connects both of them.
The position in the cityscape seemed
to demand an evocation of traditional
galleries. This is intended with a so
high-tech solution that seems to be
more a presumptuous display than a
sincere answer.
33·E5 ÁGORA Begoña 2010
Fernández-Shaw, Liliana Obal
y Luis Rojo
This isn’t another cultural edifice. This
is a project to assemble a community
in the back side of the city. This area,
named Agra, always needed an Ago-
ra. It is a seductive address, forceful,
accessible and opened to receive a
civic activity very well received.
34·E4 MUNCYT Victoria Acebo 2012
y Ángel Alonso
Originally designed as arts centre and
school of dance. During the execution
of the works, the owner changed the
program to national museum of scien-
ce and technology. The building re-
sists these tensions as structure and
façade dissipate, allowing a game
of extraordinary effects in which the
diverse spaces are perceived as a
whole. From far away, this is a radiant
object of uncertain scale.
REFERENCES:
EDITION:
Plácido Lizancos Mora
Architecture Faculty:
PRODUCTION: www.udc.es/etsa
Rocío Casasempere Dalama Architecture of Galicia (unofficial):
Andrea Fernández Carrín
Valerio González Somoza www.arquitecturadegalicia.eu
Silja Molist López A Coruña Council:
María Novas Ferradás www.coruna.es
Galicia Tourism:
TRANSLATION: www.turgalicia.es
Ada Sandu
Institute of Architects of Galicia:
ISBN: 978-84-9749-563-9 www.coag.es
Legal deposit: C 1062-2013