La muerte, su casa y su ciudad. El desvanecimiento de las ciudades silentes de Cartagena

Abstract

The work exposed in these lines is based on the text that the author read in the presentation of his doctoral thesis defended at the University of Alicante on June 16, 2016 titled "Death, his house and his city. The fading of the Cartagena´s silent cities". The investigation was conducted by Professor Andrés Martínez Medina and the members of the court that evaluated the investigation were the doctors; María Elia Gutiérrez Mozo, María del Mar Loren Mendes and Ignacio González-Varas Ibáñez. The architecture seems to have always lived in front of life. However, life and death are two sides of the same coin: there is no city of the living without its Eusapia or city of the dead. Lewis Mumford said it in 1961: perhaps the cities, in their origin, were nothing more than necropolis. And every city is, at least, a set of built architectures that, in the case of cemeteries, summon eternity. Nevertheless, and significantly, these architectures, those of memory cities and cemeteries have been poorly drawn, even before they were built. There may be some plans for these cities, but little remains of the 'forever dwellings', often replicas of the architecture of the living, influenced by their own aspirations.