Casa Nogueira is one of the magnificent works that the architect Aníbal González left in Seville and that have survived to this day. It is located on the corner of Martín Villa and Santa María de Gracia streets, in one of the nerve centers of the city, a few meters from La Campana.
Its construction was carried out between 1907 and 1908, within the framework of the urban policy undertaken by the City Council in the first decades of the 20th century, which pursued the transformation of the fabric of the city with the creation of wide streets that crossed the historic center , as happened with the Avenida de la Constitución or with this axis of the streets Campana, Martín Villa, Laraña and Imagen. The property was conceived as a residential and office building commissioned by the developer Manuel Nogueira. Hence comes the name by which it is known.
From the artistic point of view, it represents an important turning point in the production of the great Aníbal González, since it is the first work in which he moves away from the modernist style that he had been practicing, to enter the regionalism and historicism of what would become the great teacher.
Specifically, it is his first neo-Mudejar work, a style that he later used profusely and that would have its culminating point in the Mudejar Pavilion of the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929, today the Museum of Popular Arts and Customs.
For the design of the façade, the architect chose exposed brick and was inspired by scattered elements of Islamic architecture in cities such as Toledo, Córdoba, Granada or Seville itself, harmoniously coupled. This is how we can see it, for example, in the many forms of arch used, which include horseshoe, multi-lobed and pointed arches. The influence of the Almohad art of the Giralda is also clear, as can be seen in the shape of some of its openings, divided by marble columns, and in the brick-based decoration forming vertical stripes with geometric motifs, clearly reminiscent of the famous cloths of sebka of the tower of the Cathedral.
Another very characteristic feature in the production of Aníbal González is the importance given to the corners in his works, which usually stands out in a remarkable way. Here we can see it very clearly with the chamfer shape that the facade adopts and with the greater height that it gives to this part with respect to the rest of the building.
Regarding the interior of the property, we must say that it has been profoundly remodeled by an intervention undertaken in the eighties by the architect Rafael Moneo, with the aim of adapting its basement for use as the headquarters of a bank branch.
In any case, Casa Nogueira continues to be one of the most notable examples of historicist architecture in the city and a work of great importance for understanding the whole of Aníbal González's production.