Symbolic urbanism
Introduction
In the Baroque there is a radical change in the way of understanding the city. The spirit of the “city-state” closed in on itself, which in one way or another had underlain the medieval city and the Renaissance, disappears to give way to the capital city of the State. In it, the symbolic space is conceived as subordinate to political power, whose outstanding role will try to highlight urban architecture through a new approach to perspectives and distribution of spaces. The formal elements gain strength in the face of the humanistic character of the Greek polis. The baroque city is seen as the image of its ruler, whose importance is measured by its size and the number of its inhabitants.
The centralized planning of the ideal Renaissance city is contrasted with the vision of the baroque capital city, more dynamic and open to its own limits, and at the same time a point of reference for the entire territory.
During the Renaissance, the city was closed in on itself, physically and sensitively, since habitation was limited almost exclusively to what happened within the walls. On a smaller scale, public spaces were rare and private spaces very frequent. The Baroque urbanization process was the driving force behind the configuration of the city as a whole.
Thus, the city begins to form part of the landscape and takes over it. The exterior is integrated into the interior as another member of the space. What was previously a closed plant now “opens” to produce a link between the artificial and the natural, creating meeting points between the world of the city and the natural world of the garden and landscape.
In Europe
In the most powerful courts in Europe, the urban structure will ostentatiously try to establish the values and political structure created by the leaders. Thus, in 1585 Pope Sixtus V began the works for the urban transformation of Rome, commissioning Domenico Fontana to connect the main religious buildings of the city through large rectilinear road axes. The project, which was based on the ratification of Rome as a holy city, established the precedent for the interventions that would be carried out in various European cities.
In Rome, the focal centers of the urban panorama were emphasized by the placement of ancient Egyptian obelisks and high domes, while in Paris the nodes of the road system were defined by means of symmetrical squares, in the center of which the statue of the sovereign was placed. In general terms, the baroque square gave up its traditional civic and public function to become a means of exalting religious or political ideology, as in the case of the French (Place des Vosges or Place Vendôme, for example) or St. Peter's Square in Rome. The city will be structured around a center, as absolute power has as its center the King, to which large, straight roads with wide perspectives converge. The squares will be one of the great elements, a reflection and symbol of civil or religious power, understood as scenes for festivities and representation.