Resumen de De “piedras viajeras” a “miracolo della tecnica”: la (re)construcción de la imagen delas empresas hidroeléctricas en España e Italia
Irene Ruíz Bazán, Chiara Lucia Maria Occelli
A common case in the history of Spain and Italy in the history of the twentieth century is the submersion of entire populations for the constructiondams that would allow the production of electrical energy and the expansion of irrigated areas in both countries. In Spain it was experienced withspecial intensity during the Franco dictatorship, from 1939 while in Italythe greatest boom occurred in the decades of the 30s and 40s. In both cases, the respective fascist governments and the electrical companies had toface the unpopularity of these operations in which we find similar situations in response to the submersion of inhabited centers. From an architectural point of view, we found different cases, from the exceptional case ofthe transfer of entire populations to the dismantling and reconstruction ofmonuments or parts of them as well as the construction of new settlements, without forgetting the construction of new industrial buildings related to hydroelectric activity.In all these situations it is very interesting the treatment that the pressgave to the phenomenon, as well as, where appropriate, the magnitude andthe enormous quality of some constructions made in industrial scope or inthe new populations made to replace the submerged. It is especially significant the involvement in these works of great Italian architects of the twentieth century as Giuseppe Sacchi, Piero Portaluppi or even more recentlyGio Ponti or Joaquin Vaquero Palacios in Spain.We propose an analysis of the communication made on these architecturaloperations both to the general public, in the generalist press, and to theprofessionals in the specialized press. Undoubtedly, beyond the legal obligations of reconstruction or transfer that the different governments imposed on the companies, these were operations that clearly had to improvethe image of the companies and the regimes that propitiated them.
