The City of Culture: a Chronicle of Change Foretold

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1990s, one of the main architectural megaprojects in Spain took shape: the City of Culture, in Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Promoted and approved by the then president of the Galician government, Manuel Fraga, the main objective was to decongest the historic centre of Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the Way of St. James and a World Heritage Site. Since then, it has been at the centre of numerous criticisms, among them many authors have denounced a “lack of planning”, since its peripheral location has been a problem towards achieving its initial objective. This proposal aims to analyse and reconstruct the evolution of uses and the urban imagery associated with the City of Culture, two aspects that have had to be modified in order for this space to survive in time. At the methodological level, planning documents have been reviewed and interviews were conducted in order to verify the political efforts. A comienzos de los años 1990 tomaba forma uno de los principales megaproyectos arquitectónicos de España: la Ciudad de la Cultura, en Santiago de Compostela (España). Promovido y aprobado por el entonces presidente del gobierno de Galicia, Manuel Fraga, el objetivo principal era descongestionar el casco histórico compostelano, meta del Camino de Santiago y Patrimonio de la Humanidad. Desde entonces, ha centralizado numerosas críticas, entre ellas no pocos autores han denunciado una “falta de planificación”, pues su posición periférica ha sido un problema para lograr su objetivo inicial. Esta propuesta pretende analizar y reconstruir la evolución de los usos y del imaginario urbano asociado a la Ciudad de la Cultura, dos aspectos que han tenido que modificar para que este espacio sobreviviese en el tiempo. A nivel metodológico, se revisan los documentos de planificación y se realizan entrevistas para verificar los esfuerzos políticos.