Brief historical walk through the drawing of publicly promoted urban planning and construction in the city of Alicante. A.M.A. archives (1691-1860)

This article covers, in chronological order, Alicante’s public graphic production related to urban planning and building, through the most compelling pieces, both for their relevance and repercussion at the time of their elaboration, as well as for their influence on subsequent significant documents. The plans analyzed are prior to 1860 (date of demolition of the city walls) and they are all housed at the Historical Municipal Archive of Alicante (AMA; abbreviation in the text). Their representativeness is based on the study and profound knowledge of the 1,026 pieces that integrate the period considered, obtained from the previous digitization of the entire collection, by the author, for an as-yet unpublished catalog. Among the objectives of the present work, one is to increase the drawings awareness and illustrate their usefulness for understanding the evolution of the discipline and its relationship with the society that produced them. Furthermore, it seeks to vindicate the patrimonial value of the documents and their digitization as the best way to preserve them and the validity of the local research.