Celebrating Baroque Pride Day is celebrating a way of looking at the world: overflowing, theatrical, meticulous and proudly excessive. THE baroque architecture In Spain it is not a homogeneous block, but a mosaic that changes character as you move around the map. Hence the Spanish Baroque be above all deeply regional. Galicia does not speak the same Baroque as Castile, nor does Andalusia interpret the same decorative language in the same way. Each school developed its own voice and together brought some of the baroque buildings the most admired of our historical heritage.
This Baroque Pride Day is therefore the ideal excuse to visit the 10 monuments that best explain how the baroque style It took root, mutated and shined in our country. A journey that goes from Herrerian rigor to Churrigueresque fantasies, including the Italian influences that the Bourbon court brought under its arm.
1. Valladolid Cathedral — The start of a new language
The Cathedral of Valladolid is one of the gateways to the Spanish Baroque. Although its roots lie in Juan de Herrera, in the mid-17th century ornamentation began to become more flexible and a new creative impulse emerged. It is the perfect example of this first Baroque which still resembles the Escorial, but begins to admit formal licenses which announce the change of era. A key book to understand how baroque architecture He gradually detached himself from Herrera’s severity.
2. Plaza Mayor of Madrid — Order, symmetry and urban life
Juan Gómez de Mora signed one of the most emblematic works of the historical heritage Madrid: Plaza Mayor. Although it is a contained Baroque, its monumental layout and its use of giant order show the transition to a baroque style more expressive. This is a unique example of how town planning also adopted new forms in 17th-century Spain.
3. La ClerecÃa de Salamanca — Majesty and verticality
The Regium School, known as La ClerecÃa, is one of the most emblematic temples of the Spanish Baroque. Its grandiose facade and its play of volumes reflect this sober but monumental Castilian Baroque, which sought to impress without falling into the overflowing ornament of other regions.
4. San Isidro Cathedral (Madrid) — Bautista’s revolution
Francisco Bautista understood that baroque architecture I had to play with light, shadows and the feeling of space. San Isidro Cathedral features these innovations: giant orders, a chain of openings, and a facade that anticipates the more dynamic character of late Baroque. A building which demonstrates the ambition of a city which was beginning to abandon the purism of the Escorial.
5. Buen Retiro Palace (Madrid) — Courtly Baroque
Alonso Carbonell was the architect of Buen Retiro, this great work of palatial baroque promoted by the Austrians. Its dance hall – the Casón – retains part of the original spirit. We understand here well the birth of courtly baroque, designed to display and represent power, an interesting counterpoint within the Spanish Baroque.
6. Granada Cathedral — An altarpiece transformed into a facade
Alonso Cano took the baroque style in a separate place: abstract, angular, almost sculptural. The facade of Granada Cathedral is a declaration of intentions. In front of the Gothic-Renaissance interior, Cano built a theatrical exterior, almost an altarpiece curtain that shows how much the architecture sought to excite.
7. Murcia Cathedral — Splendor, theatricality and Churriguera
The main facade of Murcia Cathedral is one of the great decorative monuments of the 18th century. An exuberant spectacle which represents the fullness of Levantine Baroque, in phase with the Churrigueresque boom. A living manual on how sculptor-architects pushed ornamental detail to its limits.
8. Obradoiro (Santiago Cathedral) – Galician fantasy
The facade of the Obradoiro, signed Casas Novoa, is one of the baroque buildings the most celebrated in the world. Galician at heart, it combines curves, volutes, balconies, stained glass windows and a feeling of ascension that seems to overcome gravity. It is the emotional, festive and deeply defining baroque of Galicia.
9. Plaza de Santiago in León — Civil Baroque
It wasn’t all temples: Baroque also left its mark on civil buildings. The Plaza Mayor de León and its town hall elevate urban architecture to a decorative category that it did not have before. Another example of how the baroque styletransformed public space.
10. Royal Palace of Madrid — Imported Baroque
With the arrival of the Bourbons, the court looked for French and Italian references. The result was the Royal Palace, built by architects such as Filippo Juvarra and Sachetti. It is a more academic, orderly and solemn baroque, which coexists with the popular vein of Churriguera. Two souls who complete the map of Spanish Baroque.
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