The City of Culture of Galicia ( gl, Cidade da Cultura de Galicia or simply ''Cidade da Cultura'') is a complex of cultural buildings in

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

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, Galicia,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, designed by a group of architects led by

Peter Eisenman Peter Eisenman (born August 11, 1932) is an American architect. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his writing and speaking about architecture as well as his designs, which have been called high modernist or deconstructiv ...

. Construction was challenging and expensive as the design of the buildings involves high degree contours, meant to make the buildings look like rolling hills. Nearly every window of the thousands that are part of the external façade has its own custom shape. In 2013 it was announced that after more than a decade, construction of the project would be halted. The International Art Center and Music and Scenic Arts Center will not be built. In February 1999 the

Parliament of Galicia The Parliament of Galicia () is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. It is formed by 75 deputies (). Deputies are elected every four years in ordinary period, or extraordinarily upon dissolut ...

held an international

design competition A design competition or design contest is a competition in which an entity solicits design proposals from the public for a specified purpose. Architecture An architectural design competition solicits architects to submit design proposals for a b ...

for a cultural center on Mount Gaiás. The entrants were

Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill Leví (; 5 December 1939 – 14 January 2022) was a Spanish architect from Catalonia. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. ...

, Manuel Gallego Jorreto, Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer,

Steven Holl Steven Holl (born December 9, 1947) is a New York-based American architect and watercolorist. Among his most recognized works are the 2019 REACH expansion of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the 2019 Hunters Point Library in Q ...

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...

Juan Navarro Baldeweg Juan Navarro Baldeweg (11 June 1939, Santander) is a Spanish architect and professor at the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM). He is currently retired from architectural practice. Baldeweg studied at the San Fernand ...

Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and ''Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has ob ...

Dominique Perrault Dominique Perrault (born 9 April 1953 in Clermont-Ferrand) is a French architect and urban planner. He became world known for the design of the French National Library, distinguished with the Silver medal for town planning in 1992 and the Mies va ...

Cesar Portela Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ces ...

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, who later withdrew his proposal, and Eisenman, whose proposal was selected for both conceptual uniqueness and exceptional harmony with the place. The concept of the project is a new peak on Monte Gaiás, made up of a stony crust reminiscent of an archaeological site divided by natural breaks that resemble scallops, the traditional symbol of Compostela. The building site has also become the base for the development of a public transparency urban experiment by the Spanish architect and artist

Andrés Jaque Andrés Jaque is an architect, writer and curator. In 2016, he was awarded with the 10th Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts. In 2014, he won the Silver Lion to the Best Project at the 14th Venice Biennale. His work explores ...

. With Jaque's ''12 Actions to Make the Cidade da Cultura Transparent'', the building site was equipped with devices that make the political implications and ecological extension of the construction works understandable for the general public. The project has more than doubled its original budget and has not attracted significant numbers of visitors (becoming a

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

for subsequent governments and taxpayers). Construction of the final two planned buildings was stopped in 2012 and terminated definitively in March 2013 following high cost overruns.

Notes

References

* ''Codex: The City of Culture of Galicia''. Eisenman Architects. Monacelli Press 2005.

External links

Official City of Culture of Galicia website
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Spain's extravagant City of Culture opens amid criticism. 2011-01-11

BBC Spain in crisis: Broken visions dot Galicia's landscape

Official Government presentation
* Fragments of a program critic about the spending on Cidade da Cultura
Part 1 (11:28)Same fragmentEntering the CC (first 5:40)

Part 2 (13:38)
{{Authority control Arts centres in Spain Buildings and structures in Santiago de Compostela Art museums and galleries in Spain Museums in Galicia (Spain) Tourist attractions in Galicia (Spain) Peter Eisenman buildings and structures Modernist architecture in Spain