(1911-2004) 

As if he were a devout master builder from the medieval times, the architect and historian Fernando Chueca Goitia, deceased at the age of 93, lies next to his wife in the crypt of Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral, that he himself carried to completion and to which he devoted half of his career. His last words, written for a ceremony of redress to the architects – like himself – who suffered reprisals during the Spanish Civil War, is the last link of a long chain of texts that have influenced several generations of Spanish architects. The dispute with one of his most excelling disciples, Rafael Moneo, concerning the recent Prado Museum extension – in which Chueca Goitia himself took part in the fifties decade of the past century – was settled with words of mutual appreciation and the emotive farewell speech of Moneo, who declared that he had “learned a lot from his teachings”. Chaired professor in History of Architecture and Urbanism, president of the Liberal Party and dean of Madrid’s Architectural Association, Chueca Goitia wanted to be an active participant in the cultural and political life of the capital.