PARLIAMENT OF LA RIOJA

There are places that have had more “careers”
than a famous actor, and the Parliament building is one of them. Its headquarters occupy part of the old Convent of La Merced, with roots in the 16th century and important later reforms (including a Baroque façade added in 1685). After the disentailment of the 19th century, the building changed skin: barracks, hospital, warehouses, prison… and even a tobacco factory in 1889, before finally becoming the Parliament (inaugurated as such in 1988).

Architecturally, it is a perfect example of an “adaptable” building: a conventual structure, designed for community life, which has been reconfigured for very different uses. The great contemporary gesture was to cover the old cloister and transform it into a hemicycle: where before there was silence in passing, now there is debate and microphone.

A brushstroke to look at: note the coexistence of styles. In the same tour you can feel the monastic echo (courtyards, rhythms, proportions) and, at the same time, the institutional solemnity. It is as if the architecture were saying to you: “I have been many things, but I have always served the city”.

And a funny note: if the walls could vote, they would probably ask for rest… although, with so much history on top of it, they would surely have an opinion too. Here, more than a building, you visit a summary of how societies change: what yesterday was faith, today is politics; what yesterday was confinement, today is representation.