The Café Moderno (Modern Coffee) is an art nouveau and

eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

building located in St. Joseph's Square in

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

, Spain. It is the building with the most important

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

interior in the city. It is currently the headquarters of one of the socio-cultural centres of Pontevedra Afundación, owned by the

Abanca ABANCA Corporación Bancaria, S.A. is a Spanish bank based in Galicia. It was created in September in 2011 following the "bankisation" of Novacaixagalicia savings bank. It operates in the autonomous communities of Galicia, Asturias and the p ...

bank.

History

On the site where the building was erected was the former Pazo de los Gago de Mendoza. It was promoted by the rich native of Pontevedra who returned from

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, Bernardo Martínez-Bautista Herrera, and was completed in 1902. His initials can be seen on the front door and the date of completion (BMB 1902). It was designed to house a two-storey building with four flats (two per floor), including that of the

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

Martínez-Bautista himself on the first floor and a ground floor to house the ''Café Moderno''. In the flat on the second floor on the left, the great Pontevedrian architect and master of the

modern movement Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

in Spain, Alejandro de la Sota, was born in 1913. In 1903, Valentín García Termes fitted out the rooms on the ground floor and on 30 May 1903, the Café Moderno, an artistic reference in commercial interior architecture, was inaugurated. It also functioned as a variety and entertainment venue and had the city's first cinematograph in 1904. The ''Café Moderno'' became a literary and artistic centre where the new republican, socialist and galicianist ideologies were forged. Figures such as Castelao, Valentín Paz-Andrade,

Alexandre Bóveda Alexandre Bóveda Iglesias (Ourense, 7 June 1903 - executed in A Caeira, Poio, 17 August 1936), commonly known as Alexandre Bóveda, was a Spanish politician and financial officer from Galicia. He is considered one of the most important Galic ...

, and Ramón Cabanillas met in its rooms. In 1932, the Café Moderno also hosted

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

. It was in the Café that the first Statute of Autonomy of Galicia was written. With the arrival of militarism in 1936, its activity decreased and after a few decades without activity, it finally closed its doors. The building was acquired in 1973 by the Caja Rural Provincial de Pontevedra to be used as the headquarters of the entity, which began operating in January 1974. In July 1998, the architect Alvaro Siza undertook the complete renovation of the building for the Caixa Galicia Foundation. The decorative elements (especially the frescoes and paintings) were recovered, both on the ground floor and in the living quarters. On 24 October 2000 the café reopened its doors. The ground floor still functions as a café and the upper floors are exhibition rooms and offices.

Description

The building has an eclectically decorated stone façade and

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

galleries. It has a geometric treatment of ornamental elements, some classical, such as the

Palmette The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has a far-reaching history, originating in ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art o ...

s on the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and the unbevelled rubble in continuous bands along the façade. A wide and elegant entrance leads to the building's wooden staircase. The use of three materials is remarkable: granite

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

and wood. On the ground floor, the stylized floral windows are reminiscent of English

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

. Cast iron is used in several elements of the house, such as the balconies on the facades, the

Corinthian columns The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, ...

on the ground floor in the rooms of the Café Moderno, the

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

of the central staircase and the staircase leading to the garden. The rear of the building is entirely covered by a large wooden gallery which rests on the ground on stone pillars. The garden is accessed from the first floor on the left. The garden is equipped for family recreation with tropical species, kiosks,

Hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

s and fountains. On 18 September 2003, a 3.15-metre high, 7.5 tonne granite sculpture of Castelao by sculptor Francisco Leiro was unveiled in the café's inner garden. The interior of the ''Café Moderno'' building is the best example of

in the city. The house of Bernardo Martinez-Bautista is the only one that had decorated ceilings and walls. The lighted rooms of the Café contain the original mirrors and lamps and examples of the French, floral and classical models with which the Spanish

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

decorated their homes in the second half of the 19th century. The interior decoration includes comic paintings by Monteserín, from the beginning of the 20th century, and the three historical-mythological paintings by Carlos Sobrino incorporated in 1914, as well as the landscapes by Pintos Fonseca (1940) and the mural by Laxeiro (1949).

Culture

Outside, in San José Square, is the Monument to the Tertulia or Literary Circle in Modern Coffee, which recreates the meetings of the most important Galician intellectuals of the first third of the 20th century, such as Castelao,

, Valentín Paz-Andrade or Ramón Cabanillas, who used to meet in the city, being the meeting place par excellence the Café Moderno. Inside the Café, there is also a monument to these famous intellectuals.

Gallery

File:Pontevedra-Café Moderno (13618760675).jpg, Art Nouveau Interior File:Pontevedra - Café Moderno Afundación Pontevedra 3.JPG, Art Nouveau Gallery File:Pontevedra - Café Moderno Afundación Pontevedra 2.JPG, Entrance door to the building with initials and date of completion (BMB 1902) File:Pontevedra Capital Café Moderno.jpg, Façade and Tertulia Monument File:Ventanales del Moderno (15220639294).jpg, Inside File:Pontevedra- tertulianos y marinos (24043539002).jpg, Tertulia Monument in front of the Café File:Pontevedra-Dentro del Café Moderno (15239747067).jpg, Tertulia Monument inside the café File:Salón del Moderno (16058170429).jpg, Living room indoors

References

Bibliography

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History

Description

Culture

Gallery

References

Bibliography

See also

Related articles

External links