Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th century, part of a widening vocabulary of articulated decorative ornament drawn from historical sources beyond familiar classical and Gothic modes. Neo-Moorish architecture drew on elements from classic Moorish architecture and, as a result, from the wider Islamic architecture.[1]
The "Moorish" garden structures built at Sheringham Park in Norfolk, ca. 1812, were an unusual touch at the time, a parallel to chinoiserie, as a dream vision of fanciful whimsy, not meant to be taken seriously; however, as early as 1826, Edward Blore used Islamic arches, domes of various size and shapes and other details of Near Eastern Islamic architecture to great effect in his design for Alupka Palace in Crimea, a cultural setting that had already been penetrated by Ottoman architecture.
By the mid-19th century, the style was adopted by the Jews of Central Europe, who associated Moorish and Mudéjar architectural forms with the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain.[2] It has also been argued that Jewish communities adopted this architecture (which in Western eyes was seen as stereotypical of "Islamic" or "Oriental" culture more broadly) for more complex reasons; mainly, as an affirmation or reclamation of the Middle Eastern roots of their history and thus as a way of setting themselves apart from the surrounding Western or Christian society.[3] This came at time when Jews were gaining more freedoms in some European societies and the construction of ostentatious synagogues was possible for the first time, thus provoking a search for a new distinct style of architecture. Historian John M. Efron of the University of California at Berkeley regards the popularity of Moorish revival architecture among builders of synagogues as a counterpoint to Edward Said's Orientalism, which criticizes European orientalism as inherently imperialist and racist, since the builders chose the style as an expression of admiration for the culture of the Muslim world.[4] As a consequence, Moorish Revival spread around the globe as a preferred style of synagogue architecture for a long period until the early 20th century.
In Spain, the country was conceived as the place of origin of Moorish ornamentation, and the interest in this sort of architecture fluctuated from province to province. The mainstream was called Neo-Mudéjar. In Catalonia, Antoni Gaudí's profound interest in Mudéjar heritage governed the design of his early works, such as Casa Vicens or Astorga Palace. In Andalusia, the Neo-Mudéjar style gained belated popularity in connection with the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It was epitomized by Plaza de España of Seville and the Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz. In Madrid, the Neo-Mudéjar was a characteristic style of housing and public buildings at the turn of the century. In contrast, the 1920s return of interest to the style resulted in such buildings as the bullring of Las Ventas and Diario ABC office. A Spanish nobleman built the Sammezzano, one of Europe's largest and most elaborate Moorish Revival structures, in Tuscany between 1853 and 1889.
Although Carlo Bugatti employed Moorish arcading among the exotic features of his furniture, shown at the 1902 exhibition at Turin, by that time the Moorish Revival was very much on the wane almost everywhere. A notable exception was Imperial Russia, where the shell-encrusted Morozov House in Moscow (a stylisation of the Pena Palace in Sintra), the Neo-Mamluk Dulber palace in Koreiz, and the palace in Likani exemplified the continuing development of the style.
See main article: Moorish Revival architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another exception was Bosnia, where, after its occupation by Austria-Hungary, the new authorities commissioned a range of Neo-Moorish structures. The aim was to promote Bosnian national identity while avoiding its association with either the Ottoman Empire or the growing pan-Slavic movement by creating an "Islamic architecture of European fantasy".[5] This included application of ornamentations and other Moorish design strategies neither of which had much to do with prior architectural direction of indigenous Bosnian architecture. The central post office in Sarajevo, for example, follows distinct formal characteristics of design like clarity of form, symmetry, and proportion while the interior followed the same doctrine. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo is an example of Pseudo Moorish architectural language using decorations and pointed arches while still integrating other formal elements into the design.
Other notable example in the region is the building of the Regional historical museum in Kardzhali, Bulgaria build in the 1920s, combining also Central Asian styles.
In the United States, Washington Irving's fanciful travel sketch, Tales of the Alhambra (1832), first brought Moorish Andalusia into readers' imaginations; one of the first neo-Moorish structures was Iranistan, a mansion of P. T. Barnum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Constructed in 1848 and destroyed by fire ten years later, this architectural extravaganza "sprouted bulbous domes and horseshoe arches".[6] In the 1860s, the style spread across America, with Olana, the painter Frederic Edwin Church's house overlooking the Hudson River, Castle Garden in Jacksonville and Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi usually cited among the more prominent examples. After the American Civil War, Moorish or Turkish smoking rooms achieved some popularity. There were Moorish details in the interiors created for the Henry Osborne Havemeyer residence on Fifth Avenue by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The most thorough example of Moorish Revival architecture was Villa Zorayda in St. Augustine, Florida, built in 1883 by Franklin W. Smith as a winter home and showplace for the Boston businessman and architectural enthusiast. Today it is a museum, open for tourists. In 1893, The Great Saltair was built on the southern shores of The Great Salt Lake, adjacent to Salt Lake City. Under dozens of Moorish domes and lambrequin, polylobed, and keyhole arches, Saltair housed popular clubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, a hippodrome, rollercoaster, observation deck for the surrounding desert, and what was marketed as the largest dance hall in the world.[7] Like Iranistan before it, Saltair was destroyed by fire in 1925 and again in 1970; the first of which, less than 30 years after opening.
The trend continued into the early 1900s, for example in the 1909 Murat Shrine Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 1914 Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon incorporates Turkish design features, as well as French, English, and Italian ones; the smoking room in particular has notable Moorish revival elements. In 1937, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota added unusual minarets and Moorish domes, unusual because the polychrome decorations are made out of corn cobs of various colors assembled like mosaic tiles to create patterns. The 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, whose minarets and Moorish domes are now the pride of the University of Tampa, was a particularly extravagant example of the style. Other schools with Moorish Revival buildings include David H. Zysman Hall at Yeshiva University in New York City. George Washington Smith used the style in his design for the 1920s Isham Beach Estate in Santa Barbara, California.[8]
| Theater | City and State | Architect | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alhambra Theatre | El Paso, Texas | Henry C. Trost | 1914 | |
| Alhambra Theatre | Evansville, Indiana | Frank J. Schlotter | 1913 | |
| Alhambra Theatre | Birmingham, Alabama | Graven & Maygar | 1927 | |
| Alhambra Theatre | Hopkinsville, Kentucky | John Walker | 1928 | |
| Alhambra Theatre | San Francisco, California | Miller and Pflueger | 1925 | |
| Altria Theater | Richmond, Virginia | Marcellus E. Wright Sr., Charles M. Robinson | 1927 | |
| Bagdad Theatre | Portland, Oregon | Thomas & Mercier | 1927 | |
| The Carpenter Center | Richmond, Virginia | John Eberson | 1928 | |
| Civic Theatre | Akron, Ohio | John Eberson | 1929 | |
| Corn Palace | Mitchell, South Dakota | Rapp and Rapp | 1921 | |
| Emporia Granada Theatre | Emporia, Kansas | Boller Brothers | 1929 | |
| Fox Theatre | Atlanta, Georgia | Mayre, Alger & Vinour | 1929 | |
| Fox Theatre | North Platte, Nebraska | Elmer F. Behrens | 1929 | |
| Granada Theater | The Dalles, Oregon | William Cutts | 1929 | |
| Irem Temple | Wilkes-Barre, PA | Olds, Fred & Puckey, Willard F. | 1907 | |
| Keith's Flushing Theater | Queens, New York | Thomas Lamb | 1928 | |
| Olympia Theater | Miami, Florida | John Eberson | 1926 | |
| Liberty Theatre | North Bend, Oregon | Tourtellotte & Hummel | 1924 | |
| Lincoln Theater | Los Angeles, California | John Paxton Perrine | 1927 | |
| Loew's 72nd Street Theatre | New York City | Thomas W. Lamb | 1932 (dem.) | |
| The Majestic Theatre | San Antonio, Texas | John Eberson | 1929 | |
| Mount Baker Theatre | Bellingham, Washington | Robert Reamer | 1927 | |
| Murat Theatre at Old National Centre | Indianapolis, Indiana | Oscar D. Bohlen | 1910 | |
| Music Box Theatre | Chicago, Illinois | Louis J. Simon | 1929 | |
| New York City Center | Manhattan, New York City | Harry P. Knowles and Clinton & Russell | 1922 | |
| Palace Theatre | Canton, Ohio | John Eberson | 1926 | |
| Paramount Theater | Abilene, Texas | David S. Castle & Co. | 1930 | |
| Plaza Theatre | El Paso, Texas | W. Scott Donne | 1930 | |
| Saenger Theater | Hattiesburg, Mississippi | Emile Weil | 1929 | |
| Shrine Auditorium | Los Angeles, California | Lansburgh, Austin and Edelman | 1926 | |
| Sooner Theatre | Norman, Oklahoma | Harold Gimeno | 1929 | |
| Temple Theatre | Meridian, Mississippi | Emile Weil | 1927 | |
| Tennessee Theatre | Knoxville, Tennessee | Graven & Mayger | 1928 | |
| Tower Theatre | Los Angeles, California | S. Charles Lee | 1927 | |
| Manhattan, New York City | Harrison Wiseman; Willy Pogany (interior) | 1926 |
| Theater | Photo | City and State | Country | Architect | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre | Tbilisi | Georgia | Victor schröter | 1851, rebuilt 1896 | ||
| Bains Dunkerquois | Dunkerque | France | Louis Gilquin | 1896 | ||
| Odesa Philharmonic Theater | Odesa | Ukraine | Alexander Bernardazzi | 1898 | ||
| State/Forum Theatre | Melbourne, Victoria | Australia | Bohringer, Taylor & Johnson | 1929 | ||
| Civic Theatre | Auckland | New Zealand | Charles Bohringer and William T. Leighton | 1929 |
The Shriners, a fraternal organization, often chose a Moorish Revival style for their Temples. Architecturally notable Shriners Temples include: