Basilica of Aránzazu

Santuario de Aránzazu

Basilica of Aránzazu
Coauthor: Luis Laorga
Umělecká spolupráce:Jorge Oteiza, Eduardo Chillida, Carlos Pascual de Lara, Néstor Basterretxea Arzadun
Address: Barrio de Arantzazu 8, Oñati, Spain
Contest:1949
Completion:1950-54


The Basilica in Aránzazu contains all the clues to his roots and training, and so shows certain features of German architecture, with references to Bonatz or to Domenikus Bohn; there is a certain cryptic sense of mystery, overlaid in some way by the role of Oteiza's sculptures, but it does not achieve the value of the ideas in the chapel of Santiago. Aránzazu has a vast minerál strength; it is the result of an architecture that is abandoned and never repeated. What a pity that this poetic vein of Oiza's is lost, and that later he sacrifices so much towards the most immediate contemporaneity. I wonder what would have become of his architecture, had he continued along that routě. It would certainly have been a most interesting type of architecture reaching different horizons.The Santiago chapel, later than the one in Aránzazu, speaks more of Oizas rapid, brilliant launch. It is a more direct work, well planned, outstanding, and imbued with a certain magie value, which was undoubtedly a revolution in Spain as it was in the 50's.
0 comments
add comment

more buildings from Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza