English
As he writes in the extraordinary and sadly now out of print Summer Dress, it was on the roof of Madrid´s Círculo de Bellas Artes that writer Samoa Albert Hanover first heard the story of Leon Trotsky´s brief visit to the city before going into exile in Mexico.
According to the story, the idealogical and revolutionary Russian writer, who was also at the time leader of what might have been the best alternative to the Stalinist regime, was said to be very impressed by the monumental Telecommunications Palace – the central post office which was built over fourteen years, between 1904 and 1918. Transfixed with admiration, he couldn´t help regarding the building as a sacred place, attaching a special significance to its looming towers and antennae. Trotsky´s sensibilities though were not just attracted to Antonio Palacio´s wonderful building, but to the postal service in general.
Both literature and real life is full of examples in which the arrival of a letter – not to mention all those letters which never arrive for one reason or another; such as the one Beckett sent aged 29 to Soviet filmmakers Sergéi Einstein and Vsévolod Pudovkin offering himself up as their apprentice, which was lost forever in the midst of a smallpox outbreak – can change forever the course our lives and history.
In spite of technological advances, the same theory can be applied to emails, and mobile phone messages; posing the intriguing, existential and above all, literary question – where do all those lost messages go?
Perhaps in extreme contrast to Nuestra Señora de Correos de Madrid is the equally magnificent Central Post Office in Viena city (http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Post_Office_Savings_Bank.html), built over a much short time around the same time as its Madrid counterpart.
The building in Viena was the handiwork of Otto Wagner, the godfather of modern Austrian architecture, and perfectly represents the almost revolutionary simplicity of the style of the time – the practicality and rationale which prevailed in the design workshops in the city: a far cry from other architectural, artistic and design techniques also being practised in the same period which leaned more towards decorative shapes and form of Jugendstill, the German and Austrian version of Art Nouveau.
For Wagner, and the Wiener Werkstätte – as the post office demonstrates perfectly – the architecture of a building must never overtake its real, practical use, and intention. It was about applying certain principles, which brought closely together form and creativity and functionality.
?
Paul Oilzum
Few places manage to fuse such talent and grace – discover it for yourself when you rent apartments in Vienna
Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me
