Construction of 17-19th century domes in the province of Alicante (Spain): the case of San Juan Bautista in Cox

From the late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries, many religious temples have been built in the province of Alicante (south east of Spain) with brick domes as their main characteristic feature. Often, the limited data available about these remarkable constructions make rehabilitation interventions become into real research projects, with a high value for their historic conservation over time. The aim of this paper is to show a detailed refurbishment analysis of a religious temple built in 1778, showing the need of preservation of historic buildings as a part of the architectural heritage by establishing a common pattern of materials, geometry and constructive systems, specifically in their domes. In most cases, there was not an architectural project for the construction, that is why the analysis of any documentary and archival sources available is essential to find different ways to proceed on the use and maintenance of these religious buildings.

Los espacios para el ocio de la oligarquía alicantina en el siglo XIX

El objetivo de este trabajo es el análisis de los espacios públicos donde la oligarquía alicantina interactúa en su tiempo libre. A este respecto, encontramos referencias donde se describen los paseos por las alamedas de la ciudad, las tertulias en los cafés y la asistencia tanto a los teatros como a los toros; junto a la concurrencia a los baños públicos y a las celebraciones religiosas y profanas. Por último, destaca una actividad: los desplazamientos fuera del domicilio habitual. Estos tienen una motivación extraeconómica que obedece a la búsqueda de unas condiciones climáticas favorables y de relación social en las diferentes villas de la huerta alicantina. Ello sugiere que la vida social de la capital se traslada a la mencionada huerta donde se organizarían tertulias, recepciones, fiestas así como algún espectáculo musical y teatral.

Sites of Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century

The three articles in this special issue of Ambix were among the twenty-one papers presented at the conference “Sites of Chemistry in the Nineteenth Century,” held in Valencia at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science ‘López Piñero’ in July 2012. This meeting was the second of the series of conferences organised as part of the project Sites of Chemistry, 1600–2000, the aim of which was to investigate the wide and diverse range of physical spaces and places where chemistry has been practised from the early modern period to the twentieth century.

La frontera marítima fortificada: de la vigilancia a la señalización (XVI-XIX)

During the 16th century an ambitious political programme for building towers and forts bordering the Spanish Empire’s littoral, to protect it, is materialised. This sighting network over the sea horizon had the essential mission of detecting the presence of vessels that supposed a threat. The network was organised through the strategic arrangement of watchtowers taking profit of the geographical features in the topography so that they could communicate among them with a system of visual signs. The virtual union of the stated settlements defined the fortified maritime borderline. At the same time, this network of sentinels was reinforced (in certain settlements) by the construction of fortifications that acted like centres of data reception and supplied the necessary personnel for detection and transmission. So, this mesh was established by observation points (watchtowers) and information and defense centres (fortifications) to make the news arrive to the decision centres. The present communication aims to demonstrate this military strategy providing the inventory of all defensive architectures that marked this limit between the Segura river mouth until the Huertas cape and that these are spotted from the ‘Flat’ island (later Nueva Tabarca). A riverside geography of approxi-mately 30 km long where 3 fortifications and 7 towers of diverse typologies successively took place. Among the most relevant documents of this research, we could mention the plans of the fortifycations in Guardamar and Santa Pola from the 16th century (drawn in the 18th). For this research, drawings of towers made by the Ministry of Public Works at the end of the 19th century are also important; these documents show the new military tactics, neither for attack neither for defense. At most, they replaced for maritime lighthouses for signage and help for navigation while the others towers were abandoned.