Cities, Nations and Ideologies in Situ: The Galician Experience: Santiago de Compostela as a Paradigmatic Territory, 1918–1960

Abstract

The growth of nations and the creation of territorial ideologies (such as nationalisms, regionalism) bring in numerous Contemporaneous changes. These ideologies have not only given way to several new connotations about the growing importance of territorial identity (both at a national as well as regional level), but also have developed a complex system of ideologies from the local perspective. During my presentation, I intend to examine the relationship between political ideologies and architecture within the Galician and Spanish context. The primary focus will be on nationalism manifested in urbanism during the period of 1918-1960 in Galicia. During the republican period and after the Spanish Civil War, this region and more concretely the city of Santiago de Compostela became the centrepoint. This discourse of territorial nationalism is a pivotal phenomenon in the process of rehabilitation of Santiago de Compostela and leaves a solid impact in the creation of a significant image of the historical city. Thus, the city becomes a storehouse of ideas such as centre and periphery, Western European, a place of marginalized ideology set against the large central narrations of the nation-state debate.