Mediterranean Revival
Spanish, Italian, and Moorish traditions inspire stucco walls, exposed beams, carved doors, and distinctive wood mouldings.
What Is Mediterranean Revival?
Mediterranean Revival is an eclectic architectural style that reinterprets historic buildings from countries around the Mediterranean Sea, particularly Spain and Italy. It developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and became especially popular for American houses, hotels, and coastal resorts during the 1920s and 1930s.
Stucco walls, clay tile roofs, arched openings, and courtyards connect the architecture to its regional precedents. Interiors pair plaster surfaces with exposed ceiling beams, substantial wood doors, and carefully detailed trim. Ornament ranges from plain profiles and simple masonry forms to elaborate carved woodwork, decorative tile, and richly patterned surfaces.
The Collection
Mediterranean Revival Characteristics
Mediterranean Revival architecture emphasizes solid wall surfaces, sheltered openings, and connections between interiors and outdoor spaces. Courtyards, loggias, and terraces organize the building, while tile, stone, ironwork, and wood provide contrasting textures and decorative accents.
- Stucco walls and low-pitched clay tile roofs
- Arched doorways, windows, and arcades
- Courtyards, loggias, balconies, and terraces
- Decorative tilework and carved stone details
- Wrought iron grilles, gates, and railings
- Substantial wood doors and exposed ceiling beams
MEDITERRANEAN REVIVAL MOULDINGS
Mediterranean Revival mouldings share a vocabulary of classical curves and simple geometric forms with architectural details executed in stone and stucco. Woodwork defines door and window jambs, frames, panels, and exposed beams. The illustrated collection emphasizes plain boards, small beads and quirks, fillets, quarter rounds, and eased edges, keeping the profile combinations simple.
Carved or stenciled twists and other decorative motifs enrich doors, beams, and panels. Clear or stained finishes emphasize the wood’s natural grain, while painted and decorative finishes offer additional treatments. The broader style also incorporates elaborate ogees and compound moulding assemblies, reflecting its varied Spanish, Italian, and Moorish influences.
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Period Details & Drawings
History of Mediterranean Revival
The Mediterranean Basin stretches from Spain and southern France to Italy, Greece, North Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean. Across this region, including Morocco and Egypt, centuries of cultural exchange produced varied architectural traditions shaped by geography, climate, and local materials. Ancient Greek and Roman architecture, Byzantine building traditions, Moorish design, and Renaissance precedents all contributed to this broad architectural heritage.
Regional construction drew on stone, adobe, and other masonry materials, with rendered plaster surfaces and roofing of clay tile or stone. Fired terra cotta, rubble stone masonry, marble mosaics, polychromatic paint schemes, and elaborate decorative patterns supplied a rich range of textures and ornament. Wood served structural and decorative purposes in ceiling beams, doors, windows, panels, and frames, with its prominence varying between regions and building types.
Mediterranean Revival emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as architects adapted these traditions to contemporary buildings. Its influences included Italian Renaissance palaces and villas, Spanish Colonial buildings, and Moorish courtyards and decorative patterns. Architects combined these sources into designs that evoked the historic towns, country houses, and coastal estates of the Mediterranean.
The style gained widespread popularity in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in California and Florida. Stucco walls, clay tile roofs, shaded arcades, and open courtyards suited the climates and outdoor living patterns of these regions. Houses, hotels, resorts, and civic buildings adopted the style as growing communities developed distinctive regional identities.
Bertram Goodhue’s work for the 1915 Panama–California Exposition in San Diego helped popularize Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and related Mediterranean influences. George Washington Smith advanced the Spanish Colonial Revival tradition through houses in Santa Barbara and Montecito, including Casa del Herrero. In Florida, Addison Mizner’s buildings in Palm Beach and Boca Raton helped establish Mediterranean Revival as a defining architectural expression of the region.
