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.

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.

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.