At the dawn of the 20th century Melilla started to experience the consequences of the important economic, social and political changes that were transforming it.

The growing industrialization, which fostered the start and development of the modern cities, influenced Melilla outstandingly, and so it found itself in an urban whirl. A new conception of city was born, a particular way of understanding a town planning full of military rationality but, at the same time, influenced by the Art Nouveau trends from Catalonia

The birth of the Modernist Extension.- After a few isolated plans to achieve the normalization of the urban fabric of Melilla (the Extension of the Mantelete Quarter, 1888; the Extension of the Polígono and the Carmen districts, 1896; the Extension of Alfonso XIII, 1896), in 1906 the engineer Eusebio Redondo planned a broad urban space in the city centre. It was the beginning of the extension of Reina Victoria, nowadays known as the Triángulo de Oro (the Golden Triangle). Divided into three rectangular blocks, the area would acquire a shape similar to the Cerdá extension of Barcelona; in that area a structure of easy access and comprehension would be developed, based on regular traces and town planning.

The Modernist Extension was beginning to take shape. Businessmen and traders went for a city that firmly advanced towards modernity. Melilla would become an urban centre giving free rein to the creativity of some authors that drew the streets of Melilla with very varied constructions; buildings generically referred to as Art Nouveau represented currents as Art- Deco, Classicism or Eclecticism.

The main architectonic currents that influenced Melilla in the first decades of the 20th century are as follows:

Classicism.- Classicism was the style that characterized the architecture that began to be built in Melilla at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Simple designs, pure lines and symmetric ornamentations are the basis of a current that was born in the city to give it academicism and geometry. Carmelo Castañón, Eusebio Redondo or Joaquín Barco were some of the military engineers that went into this current in depth, who considered these sober and academic forms as the most suitable ones for the flourishing of a city at its peak of modernity.

Eclecticism.- This current begins to be introduced in our city against the inflexibility of Classicism. However, it did not gain much spreading, since it was born short before the arrival of Art Nouveau, which would attract all the city engineers’ and architects’ attention.

The first eclectic works in Melilla were closely related to the work of military engineers, who, above all, got commissions to build private houses. Houses in which the façade was still structured in a rigid series of balconies and openings arranged in a symmetric way, but a change could already be seen in the ornamental elements: much more richness in the forged iron, use of cornices over pilasters or an increase in ornamentation. The great author in this current in our city was Droctoveo Castañón, who built lots of private houses at Prim Street, General Marina Street or General O´Donnell Street.

Historicism.- the historicist architecture in Melilla was characterized by a return to the old forms, mainly to medieval ones. Neo-Gothic forms, Neo-Romantic or Neo-Arabic were intensely developed in the religious and military architecture of the city. The military church La Castrense, la Casa de los Cristales [The House of Glass], el Hospital Indígena, the Main Mosque or Yamín Benarroch’s Sinagogue are clear examples of the most repeated historicist currents in Melilla.

Art Nouveau.- It was the driving force of Melilla’s architecture during the first half of the 20th century. Brought to Melilla by Enrique Nieto, Art Nouveau deeply rooted in a city which was overcome with floral ornamentation. From that moment on, Melilla promoted a style that managed to take root and progress, changing all that had been built in the city before.

Art Nouveau meant a change in the classic designs and the introduction of a floral and figurative richness which still survives in the streets of Melilla. Plants, flowers, animals and women’s faces filled the Art Nouveau façades, in which the brown and cream colour ranges brought out the ornaments.

During the first decades of the last century, the building pace was incredibly fast in Melilla; everybody, the middle as well as the lower classes, wanted to take part in this current, which throughout colour and rich ornaments achieved unique buildings that were outstanding because of their beauty. Emilio Alzugaray’s academicism, Manuel Rivera’s neat geometry or Enrique Nieto’s creative freedom combined in the same space.

Zigzag Art-Deco.- Art-Deco, in all its aspects, was a turning point in the architecture of Melilla. Tired of the Art Nouveau aesthetics, the driving forces behind this current abandoned the floral ornaments of Art Nouveau, replacing them with geometrical ornaments. Straight and superimposed lines, stylised buildings and a global geometric concept gave birth to the so-called Zigzag Art-Deco or zig-zag moderne.

Aerodynamic Art-Deco.- Horizontality, dynamism and the end of figurative ornaments were the aesthetic keys of this current, which was inspired in the design of huge industrial and transport machines. Its main author in Melilla was the architect Francisco Hernanz, who projected about 142 buildings in Melilla. Hernanz rejected the idea that Art Nouveau floral ornamentation was the aesthetic of architecture, creating buildings with curved volumes, elegant compositions and straight symmetry.

Sgraffito Architecture.- This current was developed in the second third of the 20th century. It is a current in which different styles blend together, aerodynamic curves or Art-Deco Sgraffito blend together creating surfaces of vivid colours and rich drawings. The main author of Sgraffito Architecture is the well-known Enrique Nieto, who gives us a clear example of this style at No. 5 Padre Lerchundi Street, which leads to new architectural typologies halfway through the last century.