From Rationalism to Neo-Romanesque. Enrique Crespo and one Zamora sanatoria-residence between the avant-garde and the revival

Abstract

 We study in these work a building which, as well as changing in formal language due to its various alterations, also did so by virtue of its uses. The primitive Health Centre, which was one of the rare examples of architectural rationalism in a traditional and modest capital such as Zamora when it was built in the first third of the 20th century, gave way to a religious centre which maintained its character except for its new chapel. Its latest neo-Romanesque adaptation in the 70s introduced a new language, although the rationalist elements remained, although epidemically transformed by use. This amalgam of languages and its successive alterations disfigured an extraordinary architecture, but one that retains its main values while remaining -like so many others- exposed to disregard and doubts about its durability.