Cultural, image and spatial facets of political power representations. The case of some autonomous communities capitals in Spain: Merida, Santiago de Compostela and Toledo

Abstract

After the establishment of autonomous communities, it was necessary to choose a city as capital and seat of the new institutions of Government. In the majority of cases the choice fell on those cities that showed the functional primacy within the respective regional urban systems. However, in some regions the competition between cities relatively close in the size-rank hierarchy came up with solutions that were intended to maintain certain equity, favoring historical aspects instead of urban, demographic and economic ones. This was the case of Castilla La Mancha, Extremadura and Galicia regions, where the main town of each urban system was discarded in favor of cities that accumulated a greater cultural and symbolic capital, more or less connected, at the same time, with the regional identity. Once the selection has been made, these three capitals have had to design and build the urban setting for the new Administration, yet while doing so they started a rough clear process of symbolic reinforcement of its role as capital of the new autonomous bodies.