Utopia and reality: from Étiènne de Gröer to the late 20th century. Évora, Portugal

Abstract

Abstract. The origin of Évora dates back a few millennia, and this fact caused successive urban forms that were diachronically adapting to the needs of a very diverse sum of generations. The walled city lies consolidated since the late fifteenth century, and integrated in the 40s of last century the first Urban Plan of the city written by Étiènne de Gröer. This plan and the sequential integrated a spatial structure based on urban axes dating back to the Roman Cardus and Decumanus in the Roman times. These urban axes determined by redrafting the insertion of new pro-active roles in the case of pre-existing axes. The formation of new urban fabric took place with the creation of new axes, obtained at the cost of drastic demolitions in the dense and consolidated hull. New urban centres were created extramural opposing the proposal made by de Groër who advocated the establishment of a city walled garden surrounding the nucleus. Key Words: Urban plan, urban development, axes.