Classification of the graphic legacy of Disappeared Earl of Oliva's Palace

Abstract

Between 1917 and 1920 the Danish architect Egil Fischer and his assistant Vilhem Lauritzen, carried out an important graphic survey of the Earl of Oliva's Palace with the aim of later removing its most exceptional elements and shipping them to Denmark. In 1920 the Palace was declared a National Monument in order to preserve it from the devastation it was predestined to suffer. This official statement, however, did little to prevent the Palace from almost completely disappearing during the first half of the twentieth century. Paradoxically, thanks to the huge amount of graphic documentation compiled by those two architects (notebooks, sketches, plans and photographs), it is now possible to know and study this exclusive late-Gothic and Renaissance-style Palace and his architectonic elements which are an important graphic legacy of the Valencian heritage and allows us to have a better understanding of the civil architecture of its time. In this article we'll classify all the graphic documentation that has come down to us based on its structural elements (portals, windows, coffered ceilings, vaults, arches, etc.) as a first step for further study and analysis of this unique graphic legacy that has allowed to return to Oliva this important piece of its heritage after a long trip to Denmark and New York. GRAPHICS] .