The Interventions in the Ancient Casa Consistorial of Cartagena after the Earthquake of 1829 in the Vega Baja del Segura Area and in the Region of Murcia

Abstract

Between 21 March and 18 April 1829, a catastrophic seismic sequence took place which had its epicenter in the Vega Baja del Segura area, in the south-eastern part of Spain. Some urban centers were almost entirely destroyed, while others, such as Cartagena, had substantial damage to the architectural heritage.
This research intends to deepen the study of the damages and consequent interventions that, after the earthquake of 1829, affected the ancient Casa Consistorial of the city, an architecture built in the early seventeenth century, almost completely neglected by historiographical studies. For this building, the sources related to the earthquake acquire an important documentary value, since they testify to the appearance of the building before its complete demolition (1893) and subsequent reconstruction in different forms from the original ones.
The investigation, based on a cross-study of bibliographic sources (with particular reference to memorial sources), iconographic sources and above all of an unpublished archival documentation, found mainly in the Municipal Archives of Cartagena, allowed to clarify the passages of a complex and articulated story, the result of a process of transformation of the building after the earthquake of 1829, which involved various architects and the development of several projects, testified by some drawings.