“Beauty does not look, it is only looked at”, once said Albert Einstein. With that very
same naive and modest attitude, Melilla invites us to discover a unique beauty. The
perfection of Melilla’s urban fabric and the wealth of monuments and their architecture
have become one of the foundations of that clear tangible value, so often studied, which
may make Melilla a World Heritage city.
Melilla has great treasures of the Spanish Art History, which are hidden given its
distance from the peninsula. Along its streets and following its architecture, Melilla
pays tribute to every period of the history of the five cultures living here, hiding
mysteries at each bend in the road. Art Nouveau is one of those known secrets. In this
autonomous city there are thousands of buildings designed to captivate the passer-by’s gaze, different buildings that have made the city the most important centre of Art
Nouveau in Africa and the second one in Spain, after Barcelona.
The Art Nouveau Melilla we know, built at the beginning of the 20th century, is the result
of the blend of styles and characters that believed in the city and gave it a serene and
energetic smartness. They turned it into a whole built on the foundations of well-defined
architectural traces.
This modernist essence was brought to Melilla by the architect Enrique Nieto, a
disciple of Gaudí, who at the beginning of the last century, escaped from the Catalan
genius’ shadow to let his imagination run free in the streets of this city on the north
coast of Africa. For years he worked for the city’s Local Government erecting great
tributes to the urban architecture that have given Melilla a unique identity.
The influence of Art Nouveau also reaches the different religions that exist in the city.
Enrique Nieto was the one commissioned to design Melilla’s Main Synagogue, the
Main Mosque and several buildings for the Catholic Church; it is a good example of
the important presence of this style on the foundations of Melilla’s society.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
