Cultural Heritage of Barbate

Identification

Torre de Meca. It is also known with the names of tower of La Breña and tower Romeral.

Location

Altos de Meca, being its geographic coordinates 36º 11´30´´ LN y 6º 00´40´´ LW.

Date of Construction

Decade of the 1820.

Description

We are in front of a truncated cone on a circular plinth of a little more than thirteen meters of height until the parapet of the flat roof. To the hollow of the entrance located at the top was accessed through a portable ladder. This hollow leads to a hallway set in the wall and domed, which leads to the only room of the tower. It is an open rounded room covered by a semispherical doom that presents an oculus in its key and a quadrangular hollow in its back. The first one was used for easing the communication between the flat roof and the room, and the second one was used for acceding to the cabin as well. The room has the particularity of being divided into two floors by a wooden forge, allowing the communication between both through a portable ladder, the same used for entering to the cabin. Another particularity of the towers is the high number of skylights it has, seven concretely, organized in two levels for illuminating the two floors of the room. Regarding the flat roof, it is only remarkable its little space and the parapet with spillage to the interior which surrounds it. Precisely, the beginning of it, is marked by a bore. Though it was built in the 19th Century, the tower of Meca holds a pronounced stylistic parallelism with those built in the 16thC, overall about that related to the external physiognomy (truncated cone shape, entrance at the high, adjacent plinth, etc.) We just need to compare it with the nearby tower of El Tajo. Nevertheless, unlike this one, La Meca is much more stylized and slender due to the reduced diameter of its base, which does not reach six meters long. Finally, similarly to the tower El Tajo, it was used rough stones for its construction.

Historical Data

The visibility problems between both towers, El Tajo and Trafalgar, are accentuated in front of the progressive state of ruins of this one, which impeded the signal transmission between both. This was tried to stop with the installation of a lookout post in the most prominent intermediate point, the Altos de Meca, though the definitive solution wouldn’t come until the construction of the tower of Meca, whose works were probably defrayed by Vejer village.

Uses and state of preservation

The Torre de Meca is in good state of preservation thanks to the accurate restoration made between 1992 and 1993, in which it was restored the wooden forge and it was reinforced its foundations besides other actions. Currently, along with the tower El Tajo, it is one of the most tourist attractions of the Natural Park of La Breña, and it can be visited with the required authorization.

Administrative Situation

The Normative of Protection and Prevention of the Historical Heritage of Archeological Character in Barbate, approved at the beginning of 2004 (BOP nº78, 3rd April 2004), assigned the tower of Meca the level of integral protection, maximum level of protection assigned to those sites that must be conserved integrally for their study and cultural public enjoyment.

Identification

Torre de El Tajo. Through its history, it has also been assigned other names, like tower of Meca, Nueva or Tembladera./p>

Location

Next to the border of the cliff of El Tajo, being its geographic coordinates 36º 10´25´´ LN y 5º58´24´´ LW.

Date of Construction

1585-1588

Description

The tower of El Tajo is a truncated cone construction on a circular plinth of fourteen meters and five centimeters of height until the parapet of the flat roof. A skid, restored today in part, is the way of access to the hall’s hollow, dovetailed with blocks of stone. The hollow leads to a hallway set in the wall of the tower and this, at the same time, to the only room that lies down on its inferior body. The room, rounded, is covered with a semispherical doom in which key there is an oculus to ease the communication with the flat roof. The entrance to the spiral stairways, also embedded in the wall that leads to the cabin, is in this room. It is remarkable that the box is illuminated by the only skylight that the tower has and that the cabin is illuminated by a loophole. From the cabin we go to the flat roof, which is fenced by a parapet to the fool, with spillage to the outside, the normal type in the artillery towers.
It is also remarkable that the tower was built in masonry, it is robust building, solid and matt, characteristics that reveal its antiquity and its relationship with the easterly wind in the coast of Huelva by the same dates.

Historical Data

The construction of El Tajo tower was part of the project conceived by royal commissioner Luis Bravo de Lagunas in 1577, who justified its construction by alleging the necessity to defend the headland of the Tembladera (cliff area of El Tajo) and to connect the towers of Trafalgar and Barbate. This function of transmitting warning signals in case of danger to both towers couldn’t be successfully carried out due to the visibility problems between the towers of El Tajo and Trafalgar, whose circumstance motivated the later construction of the Meca tower. Finally, the constructions were defrayed by the duke of Medina Sidonia duke and the village of Vejer, in which point it is located.

Uses and state of preservation

El Tajo tower is in good state of preservation thanks to the accurate restoration made between 1992 and 1993, in which there were made restitutions of elements like the machicolation, the interior stairways or the sentry box, in addition to other constructions. Currently, along with the Meca tower, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions of the Natural Park La Breña, and it can be visited with the requires authorization.

Administrative Situation

The Normative of Protection and Prevention of the Historical Heritage of Archeological Character in Barbate, approved at the beginning of 2004 (BOP nº78, 3rd April 2004), assigned El Tajo tower the level of integral protection, maximum level of protection assigned to those sites that must be conserved integrally for their study and cultural public enjoyment.

Identification

Town Hall

Location

Inmaculada Concepción square sn.

Architect

Casto Fernández-Shaw Iturralde (1896-1978).

Fecha de construcción

1951-1953

Description

In the Town Hall of Barbate, Castro Fernández Shaw shows his eclectic facet by inspiring himself in an architectural style of the past, the neoclassical style, whose monumentality and solemnity were very suitable for an official and representative building like the Town Hall. Its most remarkable area is the central part of the principal façade. It is escorted and rounded off by two twins towers-façades, the kind of tower constructed by Torcuato Benjumea in the Church of San José in Cádiz, with square floor, binary Ionic columns attached to each one of the vertexes and dooms covered with tiles and crowned by a lantern. Between these, the stuffed base leads to the row of balconies, where we observe three balconies with gables, protected by balustrades and separated by six attached columns, four of them, Ionics with garlands. Above the ledge and the sill we see an attic with the embossed Barbate’s emblem of Franco. In the rear façade, there are four huge pilasters that hold a gable which exceeds the line of the ledge, albeit the decorative tension is lesser here than in the principal façade, the same as it happens in the exterior wall hangings, which are much more sober. The interior of the Town Hall is assembled around a spacious lobby, in which it is located one of the biggest stairways that leads to the rooms of the upper floor. Finally, in 1960 it was installed the clock in the tambour of the towers, so the rounded archways get closed. This way was fixed the image that the Town Hall holds today.

Uses and state of preservation

The building is still the headquarters of Barbate’s City Council. Although, in general, the state of preservation is good, in the central part of its principal façade there have been some leaks and the cracks of some of its columns are evident signals of deterioration.

Identification

Nuestra Señora del Carmen Former School. It is also popularly known as “Mrs. Áurea School”.

Location

Avenida José Antonio número 23.

Architect

Francisco Hernández-Rubio Gómez (1859-1950).

Date of Construction

1920-1922.

Description

Although we couldn’t find the original plans of Nuestra Señora del Carmen school, descriptions of the époque, oral testimonies and the building itself help to supply them, due to our intention to evoke it the way the architect conceived it. The school was a work of maturity of the native of Jerez Hernández-Rubio and so, he is worried about comfort and a bigger sense of simplification. This is proved in the functional division of its interior spaces, where we clearly distinguish three different areas: the teaching area, the residence for teachers and the school yard. In the first one, we find two spacious classrooms, one to each side of a beautiful hall, as well as the library, the meeting room, and the receiving cabinet, these latest located in a partial upper floor, the only one in the building. At the back of this area, we find the teachers’ rooms which include bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, some toilets, a larder and bathrooms, for a comfortable life for the teachers. Between both areas, there is a vast tiled-floor school yard which allowed the children to enjoy their time without leaving the school grounds. It is remarkable its simplicity and functionality, but also its solidity and sobriety, perceivable in the most characteristic part of the building; the principal façade. We outline of it its symmetry, and overall, the mixed use of shell limestone and brick. Both are used without any kind of covering, the first one, used in the walls and the second one, used as decorative element, in plinths, pilasters, ledges, and window frames. By using the shell limestone, though engraved, it offers a better consistency to the construction.

Historical Data

The school was financed by Serafín Romeu Fargés (1877-1937), tuna entrepreneur, liberal politician and, since March 1922, duke of Barbate because of his benefactor labor. He entrusted the management of the school to the Daughters of Charity, which was carried out by them until the middle of the II Republic. They lived here and even set up one of the rooms as chapel. After their depart, national teachers would occupy their place, being one of them Áurea López de los Santos, who would exercise the teaching for many years in this center, where he also lived in. In 1927, Serafín Romeu provided the social capital of the anonymous society General Almadrabera with the building, of which he was stockholder. Two years later, this entity would make the appropriate with the consortium national Almadrabero, contribution made free of charge and with the condition of taking care of maintaining the school. By disappearing the consortium in 1973, the Municipal Housing Agency considered to acquire building to transform it into a house for the elderly, purchased made effective in 1975. Since 1979 until 1985, the residence, promoted by Cáritas Interparroquial was in operation but it was located in a different area from the classrooms. When the Patronage was dissolved in 1983, the City Council of Barbate as its universal successor, was then the owner of the building.

Uses and state of preservation

The interior of the school is completely modified, yet the primitive are of teaching had the same use until 2005, concretely the classrooms of Childhood Education in the Public School of Childhood Education and Primary School Baesippo. Currently, the City Council allocates the former classrooms to diverse uses. What in the past was a residence for teachers, now it is the headquarters of the Delegation of Technologies of Information, Innovation and Sustainable Development. In addition, the hall holds a tourist information office. On the other hand, the façades keep the general lines of their original aspect, though some interventions were wrong, like the closening of the door of the rear façade, the more than one meter rising of the wall that surrounds the yard school and the breaking of the façade in some points to install doors. Even with all this, the state of preservation is good.

Administrative Situation

The building, as we have said before, is a property of the City Council of Barbate.

Identification

Trafalgar Lighthouse.

Location

At the far edge of the Cape of Trafalgar.

Engineer

Eduardo Saavedra Moragas (1829-1912), in cooperation with Rafael Navarro, Antonio de Palacio and Manuel García, students of the Caminos School.

Date of Construction

1860-1862.

Description

Saavedra planned a lighthouse of thirty four meters of height whose most remarkable element was the shaft, a body of truncated cone shape of twenty nine and a half built with blocks of stone. Above it, another body, this time cylindrical and of one hundred eighty five centimeters of height that holds the lantern. This was the original aspect of the lighthouse until the installation in 1926 of a new light made necessary its modification. In fact, in front of the greater weight of the machinery it was necessary to reinforce the tower, because the stability of itself was dangerous due to the windstorms. The works were made in 1929, following a project of the engineer Carlos Iturrate, who decided to attach to it buttresses that joined in its superior part with pointed arches. From then, it was shaped, more or less, the image that it presents currently, full of plasticity and clarity, thanks to respectively, the chiaroscuros caused by the buttresses and the final whitewashing.

Historical Data

For the construction of the Trafalgar lighthouse were used the materials of the beacon tower of Trafalgar, located in its vicinity and demolished in 1860. On the other hand, the lighthouse was lighted up for the first time the 15th July 1862. Its light, with a range of nineteen miles approximately, was produced by an optical device of second rate power, which after some modifications made in 1936, became a device of first rate power, which meant an increase of its light beam range, about forty miles.

Uses and state of preservation

The Trafalgar lighthouse still works and the state of preservation is good.

Administrative situation

The maintenance of the Trafalgar lighthouse is a responsibility of the port authority of the Bay of Cádiz, integrated in the public entity of State’s Harbors that, at the same time, is assigned to the Ministry of Development. On the other hand, the Normative of Protection and Prevention of the Historical Heritage of Archeological Character in Barbate, approved at the beginning of 2004 (BOP nº78, 3rd April 2004), assigned the Cape of Trafalgar, geographical feature where the lighthouse is located, the level of integral protection, maximum level of protection assigned to those sites that must be conserved integrally for their study and cultural public enjoyment.

Identification

Former Youth Centre and Current Senior Centre.

Location

Avda. Del Mar número 58.

Architect

Carlos Solís Llorente

Date of Construction

1956

Description

The former Youth Centre is a building of simple and plain shapes, in which takes precedence, like in many other constructions of the époque, the search of functionality. However, it presents some elements that give to it certain singularity. The principal one derives from the privilege that the architect concedes to the frontal vision of the building, talking about the portico of the hall, by which it is monumentalized its access. It is a portico open to the exterior and overhanging, hold by a series of rounded archways, five arches concretely. There is a terrace settled up above the portico, to which surrounds a parapet with grille and which is accessible through the first floor. Apart from that, the façades of the former Youth Centre were sober and whitewashed, and it is coursed by two ledges, which are actually some simple moldings that remark the separation between both floors and between the parapet and the second floor. Only in this last one, the tram is found on the terrace, which is decorated with curved tiles. These are also used to cover the hipped roof that crowns the construction.

Historical Data

The former Youth Centre was built by the Social Patronage José Antonio Primo de Rivera.

Uses and state of preservation

The building is in good state of preservation. Its interior is much modified. However, the façades, in spite of some retouches of color in the ledges and the plinth, keep their original aspect. In terms of the uses, it is currently the headquarters of the Senior Centre and of the Local Museum of Traditions and Popular Customs, even though its rooms are also used by the City Council and diverse local associations.

Identification

San Paulino Parish Church

Location

San Paulino St. nº 1.

Architect

Manuel Fernández-Pujol Fernández (graduated in 1929).

Date of Construction

1946-1954.

Description

The San Paulino church has a Latin cross floor plan, even though the apse, which is polygonal and the arms of the crossing present a lacking development. In the lengthwise direction, it has only a nave with a barrel vault reinforced by transverse arches that download their weight into the pilasters. In the cross-wise direction, that is, the transept, the same is found, although its lacking development already mentioned does not make necessary the use of transverse arches. It is remarkable that an impost reveals the divisor line between the wall and the dome. In the intersection of both naves, we can find a doom with ribs and oculus, lifted on four toral arches through scallops.

Focusing on the exterior, we can remark that the naves were covered with a pitched roof with curved tiles, but at the beginning of the 70’s of the last siècle, it was replaced in the principal nave this type of covering for a flat one. Above the transept and covering the doom, it is lifted a four-sided tower, whose pitched covering is crowned by a lantern, rounded off with a little doom covered with blue tiles. Attached to the main façade we find the bell tower, which is formed by the four-sided tower, an octagonal bell tower and a doom covered with blue and white tiles.

The whole is of great austerity and simplicity, noticeable in the interior as well as in the exterior. It has influence on it the finishing wall hangings, smooth and whitewashed, the lacking and small size of the hollows, and the insignificant presence of the decorative elements. A good example of these characteristics gives to the main façade, with its big door without any ornamental detail, its little rose window and its empty alcove.

It must be added that around the temple, we find various parish spaces, like the sacristy, the office of the parish priest, the archive, the room for catechesis, the home, etc… For the construction of this last one, at the end of the 70’s, it was necessary to demolish a little baptistery located next to the right side of the main façade.

Of the interior of the church, it is remarkable those elements, that – in our view – deserve attention. First of all, five great oil paintings of the Italian painter Ciro de Michele, made between 1954 and 1958, show naval scenes of the Gospel. Secondly, there are six stained glass windows where they are represented the Virgen del Carmen, San Paulino, the Virgen del Pilar, the Virgen de la Oliva, San José and the Inmaculada Concepción, and the rose windows with the Carmelite emblems. Thirdly, Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno chapel, in which there are exposed for cult the images of Nº. P. Jesús Nazareno (Vicente Tena, 1927), María Santísima de los Dolores (Miguel Láinez Capote, 1941) and San Juan Evangelista (Juan Abascal Fuentes, 1975). Fourthly, the Medinaceli Christ chapel, in which we observe the sculptures of Nº. P. Jesús Cautivo y Rescatado (Miguel Láinez Capote, 1950) and María Santísima de la Trinidad (Fernando Buiza, 197?). Fifthly, the simple altarpiece in wood, made of mahogany and citronella mainly, presides the presbytery, designed by the endeavour ÇSantarrufina in 1937. In it, we can see the images of the Santísimo Cristo del Amor (Enrique Casterá, 1965), San Paulino (Francisco de P. Gomara, 1944) and the Virgen del Carmen (Eduardo Espinosa, 1938). Sixthly, two images of angel located in the tabernacle, attributed to “La Roldana” and dated between 1686 and 1689. Seventhly, the sculpture of the crucified Christ located in the sacristy, was brought at the beginning of the 20th C. from Vejer and whose author is unknown, as well as its date, although by its characteristics can be dated from the 16th or 17th centuries.

Historical Data

The construction of a temple that could take in the large number of parishioners of Barbate was a need resolved temporarily by the curia with the raising of the modest church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen and San Paulino (1937). The definitive solution would come later, in the coming of a series of favorable circumstances, from which we remark the construction of our diocese of twenty nine parishes in September 1944, between them that of the San Paulina, and the start-up, with it, of determined mechanisms to ease the construction and/or expanding of temples in it. To these events, we should add the economical availability of the central and municipal administrations, with their subsidies. This way it was possible to lay the foundation stone of the new temple the 12th October 1946. Its construction was also possible thanks to the donations of National Consortium of Tunny Fishing and of the neighbors, mobilized around the Council Pro-Parish, organism constituted in January 1948 and in which predominated the representatives of the fishing sector. Lastly, it is remarkable the role played by the priest Manuel López Benítez, destined to our village since 1941, who can be considered as one of the main promoters of the project due to his capacity of coordination and mobilization, a quality that was brought to light even after the benediction of the temple, the 12th October 1954, where it was necessary to tidy up it.

Uses and state of preservation

The San Paulino church is still working. Regarding the architectonical changes, they are not many, but they deserve to be outlined the above cited of the roof of the main nave and the demolishment of the baptistery. In terms of the changes of image, at the beginning of 2004, it was preceded to paint certain areas of the façades in white, abandoning so, the original predominance of lime. In any case, and having this into account, the aspect the temple presents today does not differ very much from which it had fifty years ago, being its current state of preservation more than acceptable. /p>

Administrative situation

The building is property of the diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta.

Identification

San Ambrosio Chapel.

Location

Kilometer 10 from the CA-218 (Vejer-Barbate).

Date of construction

VII Century.

Description

San Ambrosio Chapel has an only nave, with orientation from West to East, which is structured by four pointed transverse arches of brick. These used to hold the now disappeared gable roof, with a tile roof on wooden beams and board. The four arches lie on eight columns attached to the walls, one for each support, that are rounded off by a cymatium molding and nacelles, except the two closest to the apse which are formed by compounded capitals, possibly of Roman origin. At the feet of the nave we find the narthex, whose covering, which is also lost, was a roof beam falling to the West. The communication between both spaces is resolved with the insertion of the wall that separates them from a pointed hollow of horseshoe, framed by an alfiz and rounded off by an ecclesiastic emblem of the priest Pedro Fernández de Solís. Above this, there are three crosses, to the left, the San Andrés cross; in the middle, the cross-calvary of the Carmelo; to the right, above its covering, it is rounded off by a central splayed oculus and a solar clock in the upper vortex. On the other hand, the narthex is accessible through a semi-circular arch hold by doorposts of ashlars. In the east end of the chapel, the head, we can see the four-sided apse. It is separated from the nave by a wall in which a central pointed arch opens with pointed discharge arches in the laterals. The apse is divided in three spaces, which functions are difficult to precise due to their worsening state, although the most logical thing is that they may belong to the presbytery and analogous rooms (sacristy, tabernacle, etc…) Just at the back of the apse, we can find the ruins of a water tank, of Roman origin, that some researchers identify as the baptistery. The chapel has a square base annex to the northern wall of the nave, which is covered by an octagonal doom above beveled vaults. Currently it can be acceded from the outside. However, in its origin, it was acceded from the nave through a semi-circular hollow, now covered. Lastly, the materials used in the construction of the chapel are diverse, alternating blocks of stone, rough stones, and bricks.

Historical Data

San Ambrosio visigothic chapel was built in the 7th Century above the rests of a Roman village, some of which were reutilized in the building, like the compounded capitals close to the apse. To concrete, its consecration took place the 14th November 644, when the bishop Pimenio, title holder of the asidonense diocese, left some relics of the martyrs Vicente, Félix and Julián in the base of a column. Thus, the inscription testifies that it was engraved on the shaft of that column. Since then, the chapel has been restored many times. The most important restoration was that promoted by Pedro Fernández de Solís, bishop of Cádiz between 1473 and 1500. The lateral chapel, the pointed transverse arches and its own emblem date from this period.

Uses and state of preservation

We don’t know the date in which the chapel was left, but it is true that currently it is in a complete situation of abandonment and it manifests a high grade of deterioration. This happens in spite of the work made by San Ambrosio School-Workshop (1999-2003), whose initial ambitious aim is to recover the chapel as well as its environment, although only were accomplished the cleaning of the area and some interesting archeological works. A good proof of the deterioration is the lacking of roofs, the underpinning of the four transverse arches, the lacking of coverings or the degradation of the materials for construction in particular points.

Administrative situation

The chapel and the territories that surround it are property of the diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta. Being one of the little examples of visigothic architecture in the peninsular south, the Culture Council of Andalucía determined, through the decree 75/2004, the 17th February (BOJA nº. 52, 16th March 2004) declared it Site of Cultural Interest in the Monument category. In the same text, they were also declared sites of cultural interest the following movable properties: the foundational inscription of the chapel, today put in Nª. Sª de la Oliva sanctuary (Vejer de la Frontera), the image of San Ambrosio which was exposed for the cult and today it is localized in the parish church of Divino Salvador (Vejer de la Frontera).

The City Council of Barbate, being conscious of its value, in the Normative of Protection and Prevention of the Historical Heritage of Archeological Character in Barbate, approved at the beginning of 2004 (BOP nº78, 3rd April 2004), assigned to it the level of integral protection, maximum level of protection assigned to those sites that must be conserved integrally for their study and cultural public enjoyment.