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Aníbal González Álvarez-Ossorio is his full name, but when people talk about him, they only use his first two names. Aníbal was born in 1876 in Seville and he studied in Madrid at ‘La Escuela Superior de Arquitectura’ (Madrid Superior Technical School of Architecture). He graduated from the school in 1902 as an architect, with the best academic results in his year. After he finished his studies, he got married to Ana Gómez Millán, who is the daughter of architect José Gómez Otero. Together with his wife, Aníbal took a trip through Spain, Italy, France and the United Kingdom to take notes and gather inspiration for his own work.
In 1910 Aníbal González decided to participate in the competition of projects for the exhibition of the Ibero-American Exhibition. He won that competition and one year later, in 1911, he became the director of the works of the exhibition. González worked on hundreds of houses and buildings in Seville, but his most important and well-known works are the projects for the Ibero-American Exhibition.
One of his first works for the exhibition is the Royal Pavilion. The build of the Royal Pavilion started in 1911 and the building is located at Plaza de América in Seville. Aníbal González got his inspiration for the design from the gothic style. You can recognize the building by the characteristics of the style, which are the pointed arches, the flying buttresses and ornate decorations. On this day, the building is used as Town Hall offices.
The Fine Arts Pavilion is also part of the exhibition and the build started in the same year as the Royal Pavilion. It is also located at Plaza de América and is the most expensive building at the plaza. The actual name of the building is ‘Renaissance Palace’ and this name was chosen because of the style the building has; Neo-Renaissance. During the time of the Ibero-American Exhibition the building was dedicated to ‘Pabellón de Bellas Artes’, that is where the name Fine Arts Pavilion comes from. In 1941 the building received a new purpose. The City of Seville decided the building would turn into the Archaeological Museum. After the building went through alterations to make it a museum, the doors opened in 1946. Until this day the Renaissance Palace is still the home of the Archaeological Museum.
Want to know more about the buildings and projects of Aníbal González? Next week we have another blog about him, so stay tuned!
We also made a video about Aníbal González, click the link to visit our YouTube channel and watch the video. https://youtu.be/kk5NkNDBxfw
Interested in seeing the buildings of Aníbal González? Rent a bike with us!
https://atdspain.com/en/service/rent-bike
You can visit the Renaissance Palace! See the website of the Archaeological Museum:
http://www.museosdeandalucia.es/web/museoarqueologicodesevilla