Hotel in Córdoba

Hotel in Córdoba

The former Hotel Meliá occupies a very important site in the city of Córdoba, at the end of the Paseo de la Victoria and near to the Puerta de Almodóvar. It is situated next to the still-extant stretch of Córdoba’s ramparts to the west of the city centre, alongside the old Jewish quarter and a little further on from the ancient moat, now converted into a walkway, and also near the remains of the extramural extension of the Roman city.

The construction of the Paseo de Vallellano as a ring road for Córdoba involved a raising of the grade lines of the Puerta de Almodóvar area and the destruction of the old track which extended from the latter to the left bank of the Guadalquivir and the Roman amphitheater.

The new hotel project forms part of the recovery of the area of the Puerta and of the old route, which also envisages the rehabilitation of the end of the Paseo de la Victoria, currently occupied by municipal installations set up on top of the old Roman city and its road system. The salvaging of part of the parade as an archaeological park is an interesting possibility.

The new hotel must make maximum use of its privileged situation in the midst of historic Córdoba, enclosed, here, within its ramparts, and the postwar Ensanche, or extension, which extends forth from this area. A medium-sized, top-class hotel is proposed near the Jewish quarter, and one that rounds off the parade with a building of some importance, as is to occur at the other end with the constructing of a library.

The visual quality of the design is considered to be of utmost interest because it will be a freestanding building next to the ramparts and one highly visible from the wide avenues of the Ensanche. It will have a certain importance as a keynote in this antechamber of historic Córdoba, and this circumstance calls for the study of the relationship between the new building and the historic presence, since it arises as an intermediary between the latter and its extension. At the same time the project is posited to offer a view of old Córdoba and the valley of the Guadaquivir from its topmost floors, a view it is difficult to obtain at present.