Last Tuesday, just a couple of days ago, The dean of the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Valencia organized a discussion around the controversy that has been generated over the possible demolition of the Metropol cinema. Members of the faculty participated, especially from the Art History department, the architects Miguel del Rey and Julián Esteban Chapapría, as well as César Guardeño, member of the Save the Metropol platform.
The round of Miguel del Rey interventions began. The author of Valencian rural architecture explicitly referred to Alois Riegl, one of the first art historians who were interested in the defense of heritage.
In the same sense, Professor Esther Alba emphasized this defense of heritage, in which the defense of Metropol cinema is framed, work of Javier Goerlich, since the beginnings of UNESCO; that is to say, from a democratic perspective according to which such defense is the responsibility not only of specialists, but to the whole of society. In addition, The former dean of the faculty highlighted the protection that said building already has, a work that transcends the purely architectural, as was confirmed.
For your part, Julian Esteban, as I did days ago in another colloquium held at the College of Architects of Valencia, He downplayed what he considered to be another building in the so-called noble expansion. A little of what Oriol Bohigas said about the work of García Mercadal, after years of reflection on the architecture of the Second Republic, that it wasn't that big of a deal.
This subjectivity was answered by the director of the Department of Art History, Felipe Jerez, who insisted on the character of the Metropol building as a first-hand source for the study of the architecture of the Republican period.; Professor Adrià Besó illustrated this statement by quoting Trinidad Simó, who in his book Architectural renovation in Valencia, regretted the demolition of the Ernesto Ferrer Warehouses of Demetrio Ribes, helpless for not having been able to prevent it.
Professor Daniel Benito Goerlich insisted in this sense., great-nephew of Javier Goerlich and expert in the architecture of eclecticism, who recalled other disastrous chapters for the Valencian architectural heritage: the demolition of the Juristas building, 9, verbigracia, that the students of Philosophy and Letters tried to stop with a sit-in in the early years of the 1990s. 1970. Next, He reminded the architects - as Besó himself also did -, who are not specialists in architectural history, so they should count on those who are.
Other involved figures such as Andrés Goerlich participated in the gathering. (president of the Goerlich Foundation), who also defended the conservation of the building, or Miguel Tejedor, author of The book of Valencia cinemas (1896-2014), who demanded to reach an agreement for its conservation taking into account the property.
This afternoon, at 7:30 p.m., Various groups have called a meeting in front of the Metropol cinema, on Hernán Cortés street, to prevent its disappearance. Let's all go together. The occasion deserves it. Rafa Martínez
