Iberian boulevards and city center areas: Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon in late 19th and early 20th centuries

The Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona, the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon, and Paseo de La Castellana in Madrid embody the unique process of urban modernization that occurred in nineteenth-century Iberian capitals. By analyzing the genesis and utilization of these boulevards this dissertation defines urban modernity in the Iberian Peninsula as a whole while delineating striking differences between physical forms and urban experiences in the distinct countries and regions of Iberia. This first attempt to trace the development of the boulevard in Barcelona, Lisbon and Madrid is stimulated by the cities' underlying geographic and cultural communalities, which dictated unique adaptations of the urban forms being pioneered in 19th century centers like Paris. The real estate investments and strategies of scores of individuals in each of the cities illustrate how prominent families used the boulevards to further their fortunes and social standings. The first analysis of the floor plans of buildings along Passeig de Gracia, Avenida da Liberdade and Paseo de La Castellana yields fascinating variations on European building types like the apartment block. Female servants, for example, were not relegated to basement or attic as elsewhere, but inhabited the same space as bourgeois. Chapels were prominent even in the modernized apartment floor plans of Barcelona. The development of the apartment block by bourgeois and aristocratic owners, while following European precedents, had particular Iberian peculiarities, each slightly different in the three cities. So too did the development of the boulevards as a whole. In the three capitals, boulevards were planned near, but not inside the central core of the city; while they were superimposed over earlier allees or paseos they were not primarily connectors but sites for dwellings, and state as well as class representation. Significant differences appear as well. The Passeig de Gracia was lined by uniform apartment blocks owned by industrialists and bankers, while the Avenida da Liberdade grew as a motley collection of oddly shaped apartments and houses belonging to an emerging class of small industrials, businessmen, renters, and a few financiers. The Paseo de La Castellana became a boulevard of houses and stately mansions, homes of aristocratic landowners or new powerful bourgeoisie.; This dissertation presents boulevards in the context of their owners, dwellers, and users by trying to reconstruct the urban experience through accounts, diaries, and literary representations. It does not stop at description but utilizes contemporary voices to breathe life into the plans and elevations presented here. Spatial experiences and social mores in relation to rooms, houses, apartments, and exterior spaces complete the analysis. What emerges is the perseverance of traditional Iberian social and physical forms and the overlapping of new forms and practices, shaping nineteenth-century boulevards and city centers as both modern European centers and unique hybrids.