Resumen de La ciudad de donostia-san sebastián antes de 1813: reivindicación de su presencia
The history of the urban development of Donostia San Sebastian before its near total destruction by the Anglo-Portuguese troops of Wellington in 1813 has been little studied and never in a comprehensive and orderly manner. This work aims to fill the gap and provide a new vision of this history, as complete as possible.
In this work several layers emerge. The first one is the reconstruction, by means of a CAD 3D model, of the city towards 1800, covering a great part of the municipal territory, beyond its intramural nucleus. A dialectical relation is created between the requirements of reconstitution and the necessity of its verification in the plans, drawings and texts found in several archives, notably in France. The old plans are presented, confronted in chronological order and in detail. They are complemented by written testimonies and translated into sober images, in a clear line style, "vedutist", drawn from the 3D model. All this in order to explain the city of yesterday, but also its permanences, which determine the present and project themselves into the future. Everything is contextualized and the corresponding examples of the near surroundings and the history of architecture are put to contribution.
The second deals with its development, between its merchant and maritime vocation and its military destiny, with the limit set in 1813. The documentation used was thought scarce but it turned out to be abundant and profitable, largely unknown and unpublished. Contradictions are solved, new hypotheses are proposed and forgotten elements of the urban history of the city appear, such as the bell tower of Santa María, the palace of Idiaquez, the "cubertizos", the houses of Berastegui and Babaça, and the three peripheral convents of Antigua, San Bartolomé and San Francisco. The work can be also considered as a compilation of all available knowledge on the subject The third layer refers to the endless debate between simplifying and rational modernity, and complex, organic roots and permanence. A constant in San Sebastian, linked to the debate about his goodness and beauty. Putting these debates into perspective over time is another axis of the work. Two examples of this are the creation of the Plaza Nueva at the beginning of the 18th century and the hygienist and rationalist policy of the city's ediles at the end of that century. Finally, the new urban frame proposed by the architect Pedro Manuel de Ugartemendía in 1815 could have meant the disappearance of the previous layout of the intramural city, but this one lasted, undergoing some alignments of street and other levelings of ground.
The fourth and final layer involves the rediscovery of some important people in the history of San Sebastian's urban planning, such as the Italian architect Hercules Torelli. It appears as a thread of the story, intervening in the fortifications of the city, the convent of San Bartolomé and the Plaza Nueva, town hall included. We should also mention Gabriele Tadino de Martinengo, artilleryman and engineer of Charles V, author of the "obra perpetua", with his powerful "cubo imperial" as a frontal defense of the city, but which limited his expansion, Don Miguel de Aristeguieta, promoter of the risky project of the church of Santa Teresa, perched on the side of Mount Urgull, and Don Joseph Miguel de Bildasola, prior of the Consulate, representative for the project of Plaza Nueva, founder and first director of the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas in 1728, mayor of the city in 1736 and promoter of the new church of Santa María.
