A modernist apartment house carried on five elliptical arches, one of the prettiest fronts in Nieto’s Melilla.
At a glance
The building at number 14 of the Calle López Moreno is one of the most admired modernist houses in Melilla. It was designed in 1924 by Enrique Nieto, the architect who shaped the city’s Ensanche Modernista in the manner of his master Gaudí. Built of local stone masonry and solid brick, with brick vaults over the floors, it rises a ground floor and four storeys high. The ground floor opens in five elliptical arches, the fourth of which leads into the entrance. It forms part of the historic-artistic ensemble of Melilla.
Key facts
- Location: Calle López Moreno 14, Ensanche Modernista, Melilla
- Architect: Enrique Nieto
- Built: 1924
- Style: Melilla modernism
- Today: an apartment building within the protected historic ensemble
History
By the 1920s Enrique Nieto had been building in Melilla for more than a decade, and the Ensanche was filling with his work. The apartment house at López Moreno 14 dates from 1924, one of the later additions to his long series of fronts along the streets of the modern city.
It was built as a residential block, ground-floor commerce or access below and flats above, the standard arrangement of the avenue. Nieto used the materials of the place, local stone and brick, and roofed the rooms with brick vaults, a sound and economical technique he knew well from his Catalan training.
Though it is a private building and known mainly from the street, the house is regularly named among the most beautiful modernist buildings in Melilla and is protected within the city’s historic-artistic ensemble.
What you see
The ground floor sets the rhythm: five elliptical arches march across the front, wide and low, with the fourth opening to the entrance. Above them the four upper storeys carry the Modernista ornament, floral and curving, framing balconies and windows in worked stone.
The building shows the quieter, more assured side of Nieto’s late modernism, less a single showpiece than a well-made street front that holds its place among its neighbours. The arches give it a memorable base, and the whole reads as a confident, lived-in piece of the Modernista city.
Practical information
- Open: a private residence; viewable from the street
- Cost: free to view the exterior
- Best for: the five elliptical arches of the ground floor
- Time needed: 10 minutes
Getting there
The building is on the Calle López Moreno in central Melilla, within the Modernista Ensanche, a short walk from the Plaza de España.
Nearby
- Sinagoga Or Zaruah — Nieto’s synagogue on the nearby López Moreno street
- Grandes Almacenes La Reconquista — Nieto’s department store on the main avenue
- Casino Español — Nieto’s society building in the quarter
Sources
- Melilla Monumental / Melilla Turismo — Modernismo melillense
- Arquitectura de Melilla (arquitecturademelilla.com) — Calle López Moreno
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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