Moorish Revival architecture

This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  "Moorish Revival architecture"  –  news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )

Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo-Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture. ^[1]

Contents

• In Europe
• In Hungary
• In the Balkans
• In the United States
• In India
• Theaters
• In the United States 2
• Around the world
• Synagogues
• Europe
• United States
• Latin America
• Churches and cathedrals
• Shrines and temples
• Other buildings
• Gallery
• See also
• Notes
• Sources
• External links

In Europe

Southern garden façade of Alupka Palace with a massive central exedra forming an open iwan-like vestibule

The Jama Masjid was the inspiration for Blore's design. ^[2]

The "Moorish" garden structures built at Sheringham Hall, Norfolk, ca. 1812, were an unusual touch at the time, a parallel to chinoiserie, as a dream vision of fanciful whimsy, not meant to be taken seriously; however, as early as 1826, Edward Blore used Islamic arches, domes of various size and shapes and other details of Near Eastern Islamic architecture to great effect in his design for Alupka Palace in Crimea, a cultural setting that had already been penetrated by authentic Ottoman styles.

By the mid-19th century, the style was adopted by the Jews of Central Europe, who associated Moorish and Mudéjar architectural forms with the golden age of Jewry in medieval Muslim Spain. ^[3] It has also been argued^{[ by whom? ]} that Jewish communities adopted this architecture (which in Western eyes was seen as stereotypical of "Islamic" or "Oriental" culture more broadly) for more complex reasons; mainly, as an affirmation or reclamation of the Middle Eastern or Semitic roots of their history and thus as a way of setting themselves apart from the surrounding Western or Christian society. ^{[3] [4]} This came at time when Jews were gaining more freedoms in some European societies and the construction of ostentatious synagogues was possible for the first time, thus provoking a search for a new distinct style of architecture. Historian John M. Efron of the University of California at Berkeley regards the popularity of Moorish revival architecture among builders of synagogues as a counterpoint to Edward Said's Orientalism, which criticizes European orientalism as inherently imperialist and racist, since the builders chose the style as an expression of admiration for the culture of the Muslim world. ^[5] As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture for a long period until the early 20th century. ^{[4] [3]}

In Spain, the country conceived as the place of origin of Moorish ornamentation, the interest in this sort of architecture fluctuated from province to province. The mainstream was called Neo-Mudéjar. In Catalonia, Antoni Gaudí's profound interest in Mudéjar heritage governed the design of his early works, such as Casa Vicens or Astorga Palace. In Andalusia, the Neo-Mudéjar style gained belated popularity in connection with the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 and was epitomized by Plaza de España (Seville) and Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz. In Madrid, the Neo-Mudéjar was a characteristic style of housing and public buildings at the turn of the century, while the 1920s return of interest to the style resulted in such buildings as Las Ventas bullring and Diario ABC office. A Spanish nobleman built the Palazzo Sammezzano, one of Europe's largest and most elaborate Moorish Revival structures, in Tuscany between 1853 and 1889.

Although Carlo Bugatti employed Moorish arcading among the exotic features of his furniture, shown at the 1902 exhibition at Turin, by that time the Moorish Revival was very much on the wane almost everywhere. A notable exceptions were Imperial Russia, where the shell-encrusted Morozov House in Moscow (a stylisation of the Pena National Palace in Sintra), the Neo-Mameluk Dulber palace in Koreiz, and the palace in Likani exemplified the continuing development of the style.

In the Balkans

Main article: Moorish Revival architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Another exception was Bosnia, where, after its occupation by Austria-Hungary, the new authorities commissioned a range of Neo-Moorish structures. The aim was to promote Bosnian national identity while avoiding its association with either the Ottoman Empire or the growing pan-Slavic movement by creating an "Islamic architecture of European fantasy". ^[6] This included application of ornamentations and other Moorish design strategies neither of which had much to do with prior architectural direction of indigenous Bosnian architecture. The central post office in Sarajevo, for example, follows distinct formal characteristics of design like clarity of form, symmetry, and proportion while the interior followed the same doctrine. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo is an example of Pseudo Moorish architectural language using decorations and pointed arches while still integrating other formal elements into the design.

Other notable example in the region is the building of the Regional historical museum in Kardzhali, Bulgaria build in the 1920s, combining also Central Asian styles.

In the United States

In the United States, Washington Irving's fanciful travel sketch, Tales of the Alhambra (1832), first brought Moorish Andalusia into readers' imaginations; one of the first neo-Moorish structures was Iranistan, a mansion of P. T. Barnum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Constructed in 1848 and destroyed by fire ten years later, this architectural extravaganza "sprouted bulbous domes and horseshoe arches". ^[7] In the 1860s, the style spread across America, with Olana, the painter Frederic Edwin Church's house overlooking the Hudson River, Castle Garden in Jacksonville and Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi usually cited among the more prominent examples. After the American Civil War, Moorish or Turkish smoking rooms achieved some popularity. There were Moorish details in the interiors created for the Henry Osborne Havemeyer residence on Fifth Avenue by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The most thorough example of Moorish Revival architecture was Villa Zorayda in St. Augustine, Florida, built in 1883 by Franklin W. Smith as a winter home and showplace for the Boston businessman and architectural enthusiast. Today it is a museum, open for tourists. In 1893, The Great Saltair was built on the southern shores of The Great Salt Lake, adjacent to Salt Lake City. Under dozens of Moorish domes and lambrequin, polylobed, and keyhole arches, Saltair housed popular clubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, a hippodrome, rollercoaster, observation deck for the surrounding desert, and what was marketed as the largest dance hall in the world. ^[8] Like Iranistan before it, Saltair was destroyed by fire in 1925 and again in 1970; the first of which, less than 30 years after opening.

The trend continued into the early 1900s, for example in the 1909 Murat Shrine Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 1914 Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon incorporates Turkish design features, as well as French, English, and Italian ones; the smoking room in particular has notable Moorish revival elements. In 1937, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota added unusual minarets and Moorish domes, unusual because the polychrome decorations are made out of corn cobs of various colors assembled like mosaic tiles to create patterns. The 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, whose minarets and Moorish domes are now the pride of the University of Tampa, was a particularly extravagant example of the style. Other schools with Moorish Revival buildings include David H. Zysman Hall at Yeshiva University in New York City. George Washington Smith used the style in his design for the 1920s Isham Beach Estate in Santa Barbara, California. ^[9]

In India

• Spanish Mosque, built by Viqar-ul-Umra at Hyderabad.

Theaters

In the United States

Theater	City and State	Architect	Date
Alhambra Theatre	El Paso, Texas	Henry C. Trost	1914
Alhambra Theatre	Evansville, Indiana	Frank J. Schlotter	1913
Alhambra Theatre	Birmingham, Alabama	Graven & Maygar	1927
Alhambra Theatre	Hopkinsville, Kentucky	John Walker	1928
Alhambra Theatre	San Francisco, California	Miller and Pflueger	1925
Altria Theater	Richmond, Virginia	Marcellus E. Wright Sr., Charles M. Robinson	1927
Bagdad Theatre	Portland, Oregon	Thomas & Mercier	1927
The Carpenter Center	Richmond, Virginia	John Eberson	1928
Civic Theatre	Akron, Ohio	John Eberson	1929
Corn Palace	Mitchell, South Dakota	Rapp and Rapp	1921
Emporia Granada Theatre	Emporia, Kansas	Boller Brothers	1929
Fox Theatre	Atlanta, Georgia	Mayre, Alger & Vinour	1929
Fox Theatre	North Platte, Nebraska	Elmer F. Behrens	1929
Granada Theater	The Dalles, Oregon	William Cutts	1929
Irem Temple	Wilkes-Barre, PA	Olds, Fred & Puckey, Willard F.	1907
Keith's Flushing Theater	Queens, New York	Thomas Lamb	1928
Olympia Theater	Miami, Florida	John Eberson	1926
Liberty Theatre	North Bend, Oregon	Tourtellotte & Hummel	1924
Lincoln Theater	Los Angeles, California	John Paxton Perrine	1927
Loew's 72nd Street Theatre	New York City	Thomas W. Lamb	1932 (dem.)
The Majestic Theatre	San Antonio, Texas	John Eberson	1929
Mount Baker Theatre	Bellingham, Washington	Robert Reamer	1927
Murat Theatre at Old National Centre	Indianapolis, Indiana	Oscar D. Bohlen	1910
Music Box Theatre	Chicago, Illinois	Louis J. Simon	1929
New York City Center	Manhattan, New York City	Harry P. Knowles and Clinton & Russell	1922
Palace Theatre	Canton, Ohio	John Eberson	1926
Paramount Theater	Abilene, Texas	David S. Castle & Co.	1930
Plaza Theatre	El Paso, Texas	W. Scott Donne	1930
Saenger Theater	Hattiesburg, Mississippi	Emile Weil	1929
Shrine Auditorium	Los Angeles, California	Lansburgh, Austin and Edelman	1926
Sooner Theatre	Norman, Oklahoma	Harold Gimeno	1929
Temple Theatre	Meridian, Mississippi	Emile Weil	1927
Tennessee Theatre	Knoxville, Tennessee	Graven & Mayger	1928
Tower Theatre	Los Angeles, California	S. Charles Lee	1927
Village East Cinema	Manhattan, New York City	Harrison Wiseman; Willy Pogany (interior)	1926

Around the world

Theater	Photo	City and State	Country	Architect	Date
Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre		Tbilisi	Georgia	Victor schröter	1851, rebuilt 1896
Bains Dunkerquois		Dunkerque	France	Louis Gilquin	1896
Odesa Philharmonic Theater		Odesa	Ukraine	Alexander Bernardazzi	1898
State/Forum Theatre		Melbourne, Victoria	Australia	Bohringer, Taylor & Johnson	1929
Civic Theatre		Auckland	New Zealand	Charles Bohringer and William T. Leighton	1929

Synagogues

United States

• Isaac M. Wise Temple, also known as the Plum Street Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1865
• Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, 1866 (no longer standing)
• Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue at 43rd Street, Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York built in 1868, designed by Leopold Eidlitz, assisted by Henry Fernbach, (no longer standing)
• B'nai Sholom Temple, Quincy, Illinois, 1870
• Central Synagogue, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1872
• Vine Street Temple, Nashville, Tennessee, 1874
• Charter Oak Temple (Congregation Beth Israel), Hartford, Connecticut, 1876
• Temple of Israel, Wilmington, North Carolina, 1876 ^[10]
• B'nai Israel Synagogue (Baltimore), Maryland, 1876
• Temple Adath Israel, Owensboro, Kentucky, 1877
• Prince Street Synagogue (Oheb Shalom,) Newark, New Jersey, 1884
• Eldridge Street Synagogue, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1887
• Congregation Beth Israel of Portland, Oregon, 1888 (no longer standing)
• Park East Synagogue, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1889
• Gemiluth Chessed, Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1891
• Temple Emanu-El (Helena, Montana), 1891 ^[11]
• Temple Beth-El, Corsicana, Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas, 1898–1900
• Temple Sinai (Sumter, South Carolina), 1912
• Young Israel of Flatbush, Midwood, Brooklyn, 1923 ^[12]
• Ohabei Shalom, Brookline, Massachusetts, 1925
• Congregation Ohab Zedek, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, 1926
• Congregation Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia, 1928

Churches and cathedrals

• The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar (1825–1832) an early example of Moorish revival architecture is located in Gibraltar, which formed part of Moorish Al-Andalus between 711 and 1462 AD.
• Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans), (a.k.a. Jesuit Church) is a striking example of Moorish Revival Architecture. Across the street was the College of the Immaculate Conception, housing a chapel with two stained glass domes. The chapel was disassembled and about half of it (one of the stained glass domes, eleven of the windows) was installed in the present Jesuit High School.

Shrines and temples

The Shriners, a fraternal organization, often chose a Moorish Revival style for their Temples. Architecturally notable Shriners Temples include:

• Acca Temple Shrine, Richmond, Virginia, currently Altria Theater, formerly 'The Landmark Theater' and 'The Mosque'
• Algeria Shrine Temple, Helena, Montana
• Almas Temple, Washington D.C.
• El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium, Phoenix, Arizona
• Jaffa Shrine Center, Altoona, Pennsylvania
• Jerusalem Temple, New Orleans, Louisiana, built at 1137 St. Charles Avenue in 1918 by architect Emile Weil.
• Medinah Temple, Chicago, Illinois now a Bloomingdale's.
• Murat Shrine, Indianapolis, Indiana, the largest Shrine temple in North America, now officially known as Old National Centre.
• New York City Center, now used as a concert hall
• Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California
• Tripoli Shrine Temple, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Zembo Mosque, a Masonic Temple in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• The Scottish Rite Temple in Santa Fe, New Mexico, while not a Shrine Temple, is a Masonic building that uses the Moorish Revival architectural style.
• Karem Shrine Temple, Waco, Texas; now Hotel 1928

Other buildings

• Building of the Regional historical museum in Kardzhali, Bulgaria, 1922-1930
• Palace of Manguinhos, site of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1905-1918
• "Mosque" shaped steam-generation plant in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, Prussia, 1842
• The Zacherlfabrik, Vienna, 1892
• City hall, Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1892
• City hall, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1894
• Jewish Hospital, Lviv, Ukraine, 1900
• Mostar Gymnasium, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1902
• Former Yenidze Cigarette Factory, Dresden, Germany, 1908 (here, the "minarets" are used to disguise smokestacks)
• Gedung Sate, Bandung, Indonesia, 1924
• Casamaures, Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux, France, 1855
• Villa Zorayda, St. Augustine, FL, 1883
• Campo Pequeno bullring, Lisbon, 1892
• Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa, FL, 1891
• Karlo Helmbold's House (Šeherezada), Zrenjanin, Serbia, by Ištvan Bart, 1900
• Atwater water treatment plant, Canal de l'Aqueduc, Montreal, QC, 1912–18
• Scroll and Key Hall (Yale senior society building, New Haven, CT; 1869 and 1901)
• Palacio de Valle in Cienfuegos, Cuba (1913–17)
• The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina

Gallery

• 
  Immaculate Conception Church (New Orleans), 1851, rebuilt 1930
• 
  Leopoldstädter Tempel, Vienna, Austria, 1858
• 
  Spanish Synagogue (Prague), Czech Republic, 1868
• 
  Florence synagogue, Italy, 1882
• 
  Turin synagogue, Italy, 1884
• 
  Fabric New Synagogue in Timişoara, Romania, 1889
• 
  Tampa Bay Hotel, Tampa, Florida, 1891
• 
  The Grand Choral Synagogue, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1893
• 
  Great Synagogue, Plzeň, Czech Republic, 1893
• 
  The Palace of Manguinhos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 
  Likani Palace, Georgia, 1895
• 
  Dulber, Koreiz, Crimea, 1897
• 
  Arseny Morozov House, Moscow, Russia, 1899
• 
  Karlo Helmbold's House (Šeherezada) by Ištvan Bart in Zrenjanin, Serbia, 1900
• 
  Former Jewish Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine, 1901
• 
  Mostar Gymnasium, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1902
• 
  Yenidze Tobacco Factory, Dresden, Germany, 1907
• 
  Bet Israel Synagogue, Belgrade, Serbia, 1908
• 
  Uzhhorod Synagogue, 1910
• 
  Scottish Rite Temple, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1912
• 
  Choral Synagogue (Smolensk), 1917
• 
  Hotel Jadran (Arabian house) in Skopje, North Macedonia, 1938
• 
  Campo Pequeno bullring in Lisbon, Portugal,1892.
• 
  Kórnik Castle, Poland
• 
  Scroll and Key Hall; New Haven, Connecticut (Yale senior society building). This is a proposed plan of ca. 1867. Only far left structure was built.
• 
  History Museum, Kardzhali, Bulgaria

See also

• Moorish Revival architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Islamic architecture
• Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture

Notes

Sources

• Naylor, David (1987). Great American Movie Theaters. Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press. ISBN   9780891331278.
• Thorne, Ross (1976). Picture Palace Architecture in Australia. South Melbourne, Australia: Sun Books Pty. Ltd. ISBN   072510225X.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moorish Revival architecture .

• Moorish Revival in New York Architecture