• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 705 0

held to celebrate 18 July, day of the National Movement, which had been declared a holiday in commemoration of the start of the military uprising against the Republic. It was attended by all the provincial and local authorities and leaders of the only party and trade union, arrayed in their uniforms, badges and medals. There were also select representatives of what was termed in official language ‘the city’s strata and kinetic energy’. This year, Franco’s arrival had been postponed, but several prominent members of the regime had come from the capital to prepare the Caudillo, his family and entourage’s summer visit. The main reception room, which had a mezzanine by way of a large interior balcony, was equipped on one side with tall windows which gave on to the port, but the scene that evening was dominated by majestic chandeliers and omnipresent marble, solid in the columns and stairs, shining on the surface of the walls, with a pastiche of festoons and honeysuckles. The guests occupied the main floor, the tables having been set out with exact, hierarchical precision. Despite the architectural consistency and a tendency towards uniformity of style in the guests, broken only by the bold anecdote of a few women’s garments, there was this year a subdued murmur underpinning the tinkle of cutlery, which had to do with the delayed start to the Head of State’s holidays and the spring’s events.

He was feeling restless. The seat next to him was empty. He kept checking the time. But Samos’ unease was not caused by the absence of his wife, Chelo, after whom the nearest guests, most of them judges and prosecutors, had enquired in order to be informed she would arrive a little late due to a pressing engagement. He’d considered giving a more detailed explanation, namely that she was taking her leave of a group of Portuguese teachers and students of architecture who’d come to study Coruña’s boat-houses. But he kept quiet. He could imagine the collective sneer, ‘What exactly do you mean by boat-houses?’ However much he tried to put it to the back of his mind, he found a bitter taste in the phrase ‘Portuguese architect’. Furthermore, despite Chelo’s open enthusiasm, he still couldn’t understand all this interest in boat-houses. Rationalist architecture inspired by Le Corbusier. A few days before, he’d done something unusual for him. He’d asked Chelo to draw up a route of boat-houses. Her favourite boat-houses. He wasn’t greatly interested in modern architecture. If he had to admire something, he said provocatively, it was whatever had a vocation for permanence and magnificence, such as Santiago Cathedral with its baroque façade or Pastor Bank in Coruña with its neo-baroque entrance. These houses that did so much for Chelo and a few enlightened visitors struck him as simple and practical. They’d been inspired by the famous Le Corbusier. All right. What else? He didn’t think they’d go down in history for their curved balconies that recalled a ship’s bridge. Or for the ribbon windows, the synthesis of arts and the Modulor. The Modulor? A universal, harmonious measurement based on the proportions of the human body. But he still went and asked her for a map of rationalist buildings because what he wanted was to observe her reaction. Her reaction was unexpected, much better, more calming than he could have hoped: ‘Wouldn’t you like me to be your personal guide? We could go and see them together.’ And she added with a smile, ‘Along the way, I’ll explain to you Le Corbusier’s five points of architecture.’ Her reply cheered him up enormously. For some time, he’d been torturing himself with suspicions of infidelity. Of course it’d be wonderful if she accompanied him. If they went on one of those outings together they kept talking about and postponing. But in this instance he confessed he was curious to see them without her and to draw his own conclusions.

‘You’re resistant to any architectural charms,’ said Chelo.

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘I’ll give it a go in writing. I’ll make you a map and some notes. It’s best to start with the Atalaya building