[en] This thesis explores the urban evolution and morphological transformations of Santiago de Compostela in a comprehensive study period, between 1778 and 1950. Overall, the research is based on a graphic and documentary basis from which the city is observed, examined, verified and described from the perspective of an architect, using the tools of experience in an educational discipline, developed over years in the Department of Architectural Representation and Theory in the School of Architecture in A Coruña. The investigation begins in the age of reason, going back to the city described by Juan Lopez Freire, in the manuscript of Pedro de la Peña in the year 1778 and the enactment of the most important urban policy in Compostela at that time. The study concludes with the development of the Student Residence and the start of University City, just prior to the publication of the Land Act in the autocratic period in the middle of the last century. Likewise, with the intention of clearly defining the bases of analysis properly and contextualizing the processes behind the development of the city, the study extends its scope beyond chronological limits. Therefore, the observation is preceded by a brief historical essay about the previously shaped reality and then will expand to the current generation of the city´s structures, especially in the university campus. These pages contain aspects that clarify, qualify and resolve exisiting gaps related to the consolidation of the city centre, elements of its presence and permanence, and the harmony of its historical fabric. At the same time it reveals the value of its land definitions and the role of its road delineations, highlighting the small domestic architecture that was born in the shadow of the great monumental interventions. It also provides a guide to its metamorphosis which helps restore and rebuild the city´s grid and identifies the morphological changes of the village, contrasts the process followed in its internal reform, and determines how, when, where and why this happened. In accordance with the above-mentioned indications, we will evaluate the influence of the posted body of laws that were initially implemented in the late eighteenth century by the master builder of the Cathedral and, at that time, municipal technician Miguel Ferro Caaveiro. Throughout the nineteenth century and first decade of the twentieth century, under the influence of other architects who were trained at the Academy of San Fernando and the modern schools of Madrid and Barcelona, the old city is organized with the same precepts. The analysis covers the extension of its ancestral urban border that embraces the colonization of its interstices, welcoming the development of its empty spaces and the subsequent constructive materialization of the borough. The old scenario fades into another kind of atmosphere generated by the presence of a distinct urban and architectural heritage, linked to formal events and economic, socio-cultural, and political conditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The results of which have significant bearing on the arguments, foundations and most significant events that helped to create the current reality in order to explain and be able to understand this work as a faithful testimony and the fruit of the past.

[gl] A presente tese doutoral indaga na evolución urbana e transformacións morfolóxicas de Santiago de Compostela nun amplo período de estudo, entre os anos 1778 e 1950. En conxunto, a investigación aséntase na base gráfica e documental a partir da cal se observa, examina, verifica e describe a cidade dende a óptica dun arquitecto, usando os instrumentos propios da súa disciplina docente desenvolta durante anos no Departamento de Representación e Teoría Arquitectónicas da Escola de Arquitectura da Coruña. A investigación comeza no século da razón, no momento da cidade descrita por Juan López Freire, recollida no manuscrito de Pedro de la Peña en 1778, e a promulgación da máis importante normativa urbana de Compostela naquel tempo. O estudo finaliza co desenvolvemento da Residencia de Estudantes e o inicio da Cidade Universitaria, xusto nas datas anteriores á publicación da Lei do Solo do período autárquico na metade da pasada centuria. Así mesmo, coa intención de asentar axeitadamente as bases da súa análise e contextualizar aqueles procesos subxacentes ao desenvolvemento da mesma cidade, o estudo estende a súa mirada máis alá dos seus límites cronolóxicos. Por iso, a observación está precedida dun breve ensaio histórico sobre a realidade previamente conformada e dilátase coa xeración das actuais estruturas de cidade, sobre todo no campo universitario. As súas páxinas recollen distintos aspectos que descobren, aclaran, matizan ou resolven as lagoas existentes vinculadas á consolidación do seu núcleo, aos elementos de presenza, permanencia e harmonía do seu tecido histórico. Ao mesmo tempo descobre o valor do seu parcelario e o papel desempeñado polos seus trazados, destacando o representado polas pequenas arquitecturas domésticas nadas á sombra das grandes intervencións monumentais. Tamén establece as pautas da súa metamorfose que axudan a recompoñer e reconstruír a súa trama, identificar os cambios morfolóxicos do seu casarío, contrastar o proceso seguido na súa reforma interior e determinar o cando, como, onde e por que. No sentido exposto, avalía a influencia do corpo legal anunciado e inicialmente aplicado, a finais do século XVIII, polo mestre de obras da Catedral ou, daquela, técnico municipal Miguel Ferro Caaveiro. Ao longo da etapa decimonónica e primeira década do século XX, momento no que xa interveñen outros arquitectos formados na Academia de San Fernando ou nas modernas escolas de Madrid e Barcelona, a vella cidade organízase con idénticos preceptos. A análise abrangue a extensión dos seus ancestrais bordos urbanos que abrazan a colonización dos seus intersticios, acollendo a planificación dos seus baleiros e a consecuente materialización construtiva do lugar. O antigo escenario esvaécese noutra atmosfera xerada pola presenza dun patrimonio urbano e arquitectónico distinto, ligado ás manifestacións formais e ás coordenadas económicas, socioculturais e políticas dos séculos XIX e XX. Incide nos argumentos, fundamentos e feitos máis significativos que axudaron a crear a súa realidade actual e a explicar ou entender o presente como un testemuño fiel, froito do pasado.