Planning and construction of average cities in the urban industrial system:: The cases of Palma de Mallorca and Vigo

The most important physical and social transformations known to the European city were designed and implemented with the widespread triumph of the Industrial Revolution. This paper offers a comparative study of the recent urbanisation processes of two medium-sized Spanish cities (Palma and Vigo) based on the different city plans approved. It was the society and social agents at large-the bourgeoisie in particular-, as well as the different functional specializations of the cities that would play a key role in determining the shape of the respective plans of these two urban centres. The city of Palma is a prime example of a Mediterranean city that specialises in tourism, whilst Vigo is a more industrially rooted city on the Atlantic coast.