Urban Iconography, Memory and Identity of the Port Cities of the North and Northwest of Spain

Abstract

Among the several sources we have at our disposal for our knowledge of them stands out the compendium of graphic documents, which allows us to observe how it was their urbanism at a certain epoch, and also which the very conception. Precisely, this article aims to expound a research which studies how the artistic image of the port cities in the North and Northwest of Spain was made and propagated. From the Modern Age to the nineteenth century, the portraits of their urban landscape, besides representing their physical transformations, were altered depending on the messages they were intended to immortalize or the objectives pursued. In summary, it will expound a methodology which allows to understand the utility of the plastic testimonies for the study of the urban evolution and to know ways and lifestyles from the past, cultural conceptions and different perceptions of the same reality.