One of the best places in Santiago is its market, designed in 1937 by Joaquín Vaquero Palacios in a style of robust, rustic classicism, opened in 1941, much admired by Aldo Rossi when he visited Compostela for SIAC 1976:-

I took the long route to lunch calling in on the courtyards of the former Pilgrim’s Hospital, now the Parador:-

And admired the sculpture of Adam on its façade:-

The church of St. Francis looks unused:-

The church of St. Martin Pinario was also shut:-

Then I walked by back streets and alleyways to our rendezvous at Abastos 2.0 by the market place:-

We were able to walk across the roof of the Cathedral.  Quite an experience, seeing the baroque towers so close up:-

We ended up in front of the Pórtico de la Gloria, an extraordinary feat of medieval carving, so unexpectedly life-like, s much less stylised than the equivalent sculpture of south-west France to which it is compared.

No photography.

Then to the little museum.

S. Sebastián c.1450:-

And the cloister:-

So, the day began with Goretti Sanmartin, the Mayor of Compostela, encouraging us to get lost.  I thought: has she been reading my blog ?  It was precisely the sensation I had enjoyed of being able to explore the city without a map or any plan of what to see because it is so well preserved as a totality, an urban environment which the city cares about not building by building, but as a whole. 

And she described the purpose of the day’s conference so precisely: to think about provenance; the ways in which an understanding of a city’s history, the trajectory of urban change, can benefit its culture.  It’s hard to imagine the Mayor of London saying anything comparable.  But, then, our Mayor was not trained as a philologist:-

I walked round the old town of Compostela, mostly in the lightest drizzle, to get a feel of its historic environment – the still medieval streets with their arcades, the seminaries, the absence of traffic, the sense of it being a place of pilgrimage round its great cathedral:-

Then I found a map and lost the magic of exploration.

In looking at the future development of Smithfield Market, I have been pointed in the direction of a report Terry Farrell did a while back which retains its validity now that the Market traders may move out: that it should retain its identity as a mixed use, cultural project, part of a Culture Mile, rather than be treated as a site for large-scale commercial development.

It’s into this context that the RIBA Drawings Collection might fit, alongside the new London Museum.

https://farrells.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Smithfield-Market_Understanding-the-Site.pdf

Over the last year, architectural historians have been exercised about the future display and availability of the RIBA drawings collection.  In my article in the current issue of The Critic, I have tried to explain the background to this concern.

The RIBA is now trying to figure out where and how its drawings collection should be stored.  I feel that one obvious possibility could be as part of the Barbican’s plans for its future development or in Smithfield Market when the traders move out.  Or Bastion House.

Helsinki has just launched a competition for an Architecture Museum.  Other cities have one.  Why not London ?  It should not have to be the responsibility of the RIBA on its own.

https://thecritic.co.uk/whither-the-ribas-drawings/

A very beautiful collection of objects on display in the gallery at the back of Hauser & Wirth in Savile Row if you happen to be passing:-

https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/kunstsilo-art-gallery-norway