La última casa gótica de a coruña. Viejos ropajes para una nueva dimensión urbana

Abstract

The Last Gothic House in A Coruña: Old Garments for a new Urban Dimension The demolition of what was known as the Casa Gótica (“Gothic House”) in A Coruña in 1936 was one of the most lamentable of all losses of medieval civil architecture in Galicia. The palace was built in around 1510 by frey Juan Piñeiro Gallego, a knight commander of Portomarín and Trebejo who achieved fame and fortune in Rhodes as a member of the Order of San Juan and as a captain in the Italian Wars. The building featured an existing medieval tower, which was used as a watchtower for the port, with a new palatial building – completely open to the adjoi- ning square – being constructed around it, in the manner of a large loggia. It was a construction unique in the Spanish-speaking world. While the decoration was Galician in style and the structure Castilian in its inspiration – based on the Casa del Cordón in Burgos – the arcade that looked out on to the main square was inspired by the Gothic buildings of northern Italy, the only possible explanation for which was the time its owner spent in the Mediterranean. Such is the importance of the palace’s new urban layout, the unique nature of its decorative elements, the fascinatingly nuanced story of the man who built it, and its physical disappearance, that an in-depth study, accompanied by virtual recrea- tions, is needed in order to highlight the value of a building like no other.