How to see the best modernist buildings in Ferrol

Sometimes you arrive at a place for an event or to visit a specific corner, and you discover a tourist attraction that you were not aware of and it becomes one of the great surprises of your trip.

This is what happened to me in trip to Ferrol, in the province of A Coruña, which I did on the occasion of the FEVINO international fair.

I knew about this Galician city that one of its attractions was the possibility of visiting the historic facilities of its Arsenal and military shipyards.

But during my stay I discovered a very interesting Modernism Route, with several buildings of said architecture that give a special character to the Magdalena neighborhood.

To understand the origin of what is now presented as a thematic tourist route to walk around center of Ferrol, you have to go back to the time when said neighborhood was built.

At present, the Magdalena neighborhood It is the true social and commercial center of Ferrol, but until the mid-18th century it was only a small fishing village on the banks of this Galician estuary.

Curiosities history of the Magdalena neighborhood in Ferrol

The approval in 1761 of the construction of the Magdalena neighborhood by the king Carlos III It was an outstanding urban planning proposal at that time due to its rationalist design.

El Magdalena neighborhood was born in parallel to the construction of the arsenals and the military shipyard that were going to change the life of the old age Ferrol.

With its rectangular layout in the shape of a chocolate bar, with all its parallel and perpendicular streets, it was populated with classicist buildings that for the first time in Galicia They showed large wrought iron balconies and glass galleries, an image now so characteristic of that region.

It was at the beginning of the 20th century when numerous buildings began to be built. modernist buildings, with rounded shapes and decoration with elements of nature.

You will undoubtedly be surprised by the presence in Ferrol of numerous examples of this very creative architectural style that was developed in parallel in large European cities, such as Barcelona, or with the variant art nouveau in brussels, as I was able to verify in one of my last trips to belgium.

Best modernist buildings in Ferrol

This is largely due to the work of the municipal architect Rodolfo Ucha Piñeiro, who was the driving force behind the construction of several of the modernist buildings of Ferrol.

On the city map that you can get in the Ferrol Tourist Office (in the Spain Square, or in summer also at the information point of the old port) you have the location of the most notable modernist buildings in the Galician city indicated.

Thus, in the central Galicia square where is the main door of the Military Arsenal, you find the Jofre Theater, whose façade was made in 1920 by the aforementioned Rodolfo Ucha.

In one of the corners of the same square you have one of the most important modernist buildings in Ferrol, the Romero House, also from Ucha, which you will recognize by its white façade and the closed viewing balconies on its corners.

Another building that will also catch your attention is the Casa Rodríguez Trigo (c/Dolores 77), from 1914, conceived as an urban chalet and with large closed viewpoints.

Almost opposite is the building of the old Bank of La Coruña, which shows the character of an official building of the time.

In the real street you have the building Swiss Hotel, designed by Ucha in 1913 for homes and businesses, but it was finally the headquarters of the aforementioned hotel. Its architectural style is eclectic with Parisian influence.

Also with design Ucha, another building worth mentioning is the Munduate House (c/Magdalena 61), from 1910, in which the carpentry and wrought iron of a clear modernist style stand out.

Finally I want to highlight the Anton House, on the western edge of Magdalena neighborhood, in front of the building Parador de Turismo.

This is a project carried out by Ucha in 1919 for a mayor of Ferrol, where the red exterior viewpoints on the corner of what was a three-story single-family home, now occupied by a religious school, stand out.

Be sure to notice the pergola at the entrance and the garden with stairs.

A good help that I used to follow the Modernism Route in Ferrol is Ferrol Tourism app whose download you can access from the official website itself.

In short, an interesting route that will give you a different image of what you might expect to see on your visit to Ferrol.