|
|
 |
| |
|
Home > Travel Spain > Spain Attractions > The Casa Museo de Menéndez: A Museum of History and Literature of Santander
The Casa Museo de Menéndez: A Museum of History and Literature of Santander
When mentioning the name de Menéndez Pelayo and his famous Library, it seems forced to talk about the really exceptional cultural atmosphere that the city of Santander obtained in the second half of the 19th century and in the first years of the 20th century, a period in which insigne scholars gave splendor to Santander. At that time, figures of Literature and History coexisted, not only nationally, but in a universal case. Some of these figures were Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo or Marcelino Sautuola. The caves of Altamira were discovered by Sautuola. Alongside them appeared talents like Jose Maria of Pereda, a great novelist; Amós de Escalante, a poet and prosiest of fort inspiration and impeccable technique; Angel of the Rivers, hidalgo and historian of most singular character; González de Linares, scientist, etc... For a city so small as the Santander of that time, this cultural awakening repelled on the popular classes that, in their measurement, benefited from this exceptional situation. There is no doubt that the most amazing figure was Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, its library is composed by more than 40.000 volumes.
In order to lodge so singular legacy, the santanderino municipality believed that it was necessary to construct a building for it, adding the other greater one to install the Municipal Library in it. Ordered to the project, the castreño architect Leonardo Rucabado devised this complex connected by a small garden in where the sedente statue of the wise person was placed later. Rucabado took to practice its artistic sense and tried to revive the traditional forms partly to construct the Cantabrian stonecutters. Thus, in the mixed style of these two buildings it was outlined that we could call them neobaroque - regionalist, consistent and nobleman. One of them keeps the bibliographical legacy from Menéndez Pelayo. The other, the one to the right according to the entrance garden welcomes today in the Municipal Museum of Beautiful Arts and takes a porch of elegance, as a triumphal arc with separation of toscanas columns. Both buildings are crowned with railings of balusters.
Back to Spain Attractions
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|