Edificio del Casino Español, Melilla
The home of Melilla’s oldest club, a modernist front that Nieto built up storey by storey.
At a glance
The Edificio del Casino Español rises on the Calle Ejército Español in the Modernista quarter of Melilla. It was designed by Enrique Nieto, the Barcelona-trained architect who brought modernism to the city, to a project of 1910–1911. Over the following years Nieto raised the building twice, in 1917 and again in 1924, each time adding height and halls and sharpening the Modernista image that still defines the front. It houses the Casino Español, the oldest recreational society in Melilla, founded in 1898.
Key facts
- Location: Calle Ejército Español, Ensanche Modernista, Melilla
- Architect: Enrique Nieto
- Built: from 1911, extended in 1917 and 1924
- Style: Melilla modernism
- Today: seat of the Casino Español society; protected as a cultural asset
History
The Casino Español of Melilla was founded on 10 November 1898 as a meeting place for the city’s society, the oldest such club in the enclave. As Melilla’s modern centre took shape, the casino wanted a home to match, and it turned to Enrique Nieto, the architect who was giving the new avenues their Modernista character.
Nieto drew up the design around 1910–1911 and built the first version of the casino. The club and the city kept growing, and so did the building: in 1917 and then in 1924, Nieto returned to add floors and rooms. The Modernista façade we see today is the product of those campaigns, a single ornamented front that grew upward over more than a decade.
The Casino Español has carried on its social life in the building ever since, well past its first century, and the edifice is protected as part of the historic-artistic ensemble of Melilla.
What you see
The front is pure Melilla modernism: bays of tall windows framed in modelled stone, with floral and geometric ornament gathering around the openings and along the cornice. Wrought-iron balconies run across the façade, and the whole composition is balanced and grand, as befits a gentlemen’s club on a city avenue.
Because the building rose in stages, the eye can climb it like a record of the city’s confidence, each new storey carrying the Modernista language a little higher. Inside, the casino keeps the social rooms of a turn-of-the-century club, though access depends on the society’s own arrangements.
Practical information
- Open: a private members’ society; the façade is freely viewable from the street
- Cost: free to view the exterior
- Best for: the modelled stone front and ironwork balconies
- Time needed: 10 minutes
Getting there
The Casino Español is on the Calle Ejército Español in the centre of Melilla, within the Modernista Ensanche near the Plaza de España.
Nearby
- Grandes Almacenes La Reconquista — Nieto’s floral department store on the main avenue
- Casino Militar — Nieto’s other club building on the Plaza de España
- Antiguo Economato Militar — Nieto’s remodelled front nearby
Sources
- Melilla Monumental (melillamonumental.es) — Casino Español
- Edificio del Casino Español — Real Academia de la Historia / heritage records
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Diventa un fotografo di Cultural Heritage Online
Condividi le tue foto dei luoghi: restano pubblicate con la tua firma come autore. Più vengono viste, più ti fai conoscere — e presto un concorso premierà le foto più apprezzate.
Accedi o registrati gratis per aggiungere una foto