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del Alcázar and adding a strip of land of 14 m deep from the for-
mer wall. This band should not be built entirely avoiding possible
views over the Jardines del Alcázar. The projects give the building a
height ranging between five or six floors, trace a pedestrian street
between the buildings and the garden and break the continuity of
the street by means of successive advances and offsets of the build-
ing and opening small steps between the vehicular and pedestrian
pathway. The National Heritage is the body which hinders the im-
plementation of these projects by requiring the removal of the pe-
destrian street, paths and offsets and prohibit buildings could have
views over the gardens.
Década 1950-1.960. Calle San Fernando.
On May 31st 1950, the Permanent Municipal Committee approved
the proposal made by Mayor Piñar y Miura, which contains the
important novelty of including the two sidewalks of the street in
the reform of the Calle San Fernando. The proposal, though not
explicitly defined, is conceived as an act of execution of predicted
roads of the 1946 Plan. For the right sidewalk, it is proposed the
removal of fences that limit the grounds of the University and the
Hotel, and for the left, the construction of a row of houses of great
poise and height, according to its ideal location and expanding the
background of the plots by means the Jardines del Alcázar. This
proposal was approved by the Permanent Municipal Commission
and in development of this agreement, the Technical Section of
Roads and Works shall draw the appropriate preliminary draft,
justifying the advisability of removing the fences of the Fábrica de
Tabacos and the Hotel and incorporate their respective gardens to
the public road. Moreover, the City Council will manage with the
National Heritage the assignment or sale of a strip of land in the
Jardines del Alcázar to expand the background of the plots on the
left margin so that the construction of new buildings proves profit-
able reaching 24 m. background.
Being Mayor Mr. Perez de Ayala and in development of the pro-
posal approved by the Plenary, the municipal architect Luis Gomez
Esther is entrusted the drafting of the “Project for Widening of
Calle San Fernando and Creation of a pedestrian street between
Maria Pineda and the Jardines de Catalina de Ribera “, presented
in September 1959. This project was never processed, leaving the
decision that is ever adopted on this same pending.
As described in the Report, the objectives are:
• Extension of Calle San Fernando with expansion of the road, on
the right side, to the chapel of the University, suppressing the
fences and replacing it with a limit of stone and staircase.
• Opening of a pedestrian street of 3.50 m. wide, between the Alca-
zar and the houses on the left sidewalk, with entrance through the
current door of Paseo Catalina de Ribera and exits to the Calle San
Fernando, next to the house No. 3 and Calle Maria de Pineda.
• Construction of a separating wall with the Alcázar.
• Construction of the houses on the left sidewalk, with a maxi-
mum height of 19.50 m. to the upper cornice line, without
setback attic. The aim is to break the continuity of the street by
means of two options: with successive advances and setbacks of
buildings or opening small streets with communication with the
pedestrian street that is drawn parallel to the wall.
• Regarding the number of floors of the buildings, it is proposed
to allow up to six plants with the limitation of 19.50 m., which
is the height of cornice of La Equitativa Building, but without
an upper sill or recessed attic.
In 1960, the same architect, Luis Gomez Esther, presents a new
project, renovated from the previous, called “Project for Calle San
Fernando and pedestrian separation with the Reales Alcázares”.
The main differences between this and the previous are:
• Modification of the layout of the rear pedestrian street, that
instead of leading to the confluence of Maria de Pineda and
Dean Miranda, through a property belonging to the Herit-
age, necessarily led, by expropriation, to Plaza Calvo Sotelo,
through the building of the Yanduri foundation.
• With regard to the heights of the buildings, for Calle San Fer-
nando, the idea of keeping the five floors of the La Equitativa
building is adopted, while the facade of the pedestrian street
will have only one plant so that the windows are not visible
from Jardín del Alcázar.
• Elimination of the idea of making the facade of Calle San
Fernando based on advances and setbacks of the buildings
to break the uniformity, adopting the intermediate streets,
through estates which will be expropriated.
This project was approved by the Municipality on the condi-
tion that it was completed with the drafting of some regulatory
ordinances of the construction. A few days later, the Municipal
Technical Section delivers a final draft, signed by the architects
Luis Gomez Estern, Alfonso Toro de Haro, and Aurelio Gómez de
Terreros, and the engineer Juan de Haro, introducing new modi-
fications compared with the previous:
• More poise is granted to the entrances of the pedestrian street
through Yanduri Palace and Paseo Catalina de Ribera.
• Modification of the accesses to the said street from Calle San
Fernando.
• The appearance of the new enclosure of the Alcázar is
changed.
• The fence of the Fábrica is replaced with stone monoliths and
chains.
• The profile of the street is renovated, modifying the width of
the sidewalks and the organization of the parking spaces.
• In addition, the corresponding building regulations are at-
tached.
The National Heritage did not accept this project, imposing the
following conditions:
The strip of the gardens that should be added to the build-
ings should be limited by a line parallel to the street and at
14 m. from the previous line, thus not allowing the squares or
extensions that the project posed. The prohibition concern-
ing the buildings may have views of the gardens was also
reiterated
