Heliodoro Dols was born in Valencia on 7 December 1933, into a family of merchants from Castelló. In 1942 his family moved to Madrid, where he studied at the School of Architecture. He finished his degree in 1959, as part of the school’s 110th class, which also included Fernando Higueras, Curro Inza, and Miguel de Oriol, among others. During his years at university he participated in the art scene in the capital, in the circles of Antonio López, Lucio Muñoz, and Luis Feito, among others. Specifically, with Antonio López he won the National Architecture Award in 1965 for the design of a fountain for the Plaza Mayor in Pedraza (Segovia). That same year he earned his PhD from the Madrid school with a project on the planning for the town of Javier (Navarra). Dols was a member of the Sacred Art Movement, led by José Manuel de Aguilar at the Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha. In 1957, he won first prize in the student competition for the design of a tabernacle in the chapel of the Aquinas Hall of Residence.

In 1960, Dols began working at Estudios de Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Decoración, a firm directed by the engineer and artist Fernando Delapuente in Madrid. Soon after, the firm received the commission from the Postigo brothers to build a sausage factory in Segovia. Delapuente put Dols in charge of the project and, together with his friend Curro Inza, they delivered the design in May 1963. Inza was responsible for the construction management, and he imprinted his personal character on the work. With the same firm, Dols was commissioned to design the shrine in Torreciudad, which he worked on almost exclusively from 1963 to 1975. The design is based on tradition and the popular architecture of Aragon; it is a complex and organic design with an identity that is achieved through the use of the brick materials characteristic of the region, aiming to emulate the surrounding villages on the scale of the landscape. The major contribution in Torreciudad is the delicate harmony between an undeniably modern architecture and a more traditional setting.

In 1973, Dols moved to Zaragoza, and the rest of his work was built mainly in Aragon. The Peñalba Hall of Residence (1979) and the housing and surroundings of the Plaza de San Bruno (1990) are two significant works in Zaragoza. The housing in the El Carmen development in Logroño (1976), the Peñafiel Hall of Residence in Valladolid (1980), and the housing at calle Lagasca 112 in Madrid (1988) are other examples of his architecture outside Aragon.

Biography by Javier Domingo de Miguel

Bibliography

• DOMINGO DE MIGUEL, Javier, Heliodoro Dols. Tradición. Modernidad. Autenticidad, Ediciones Asimétricas, Madrid, 2025.
• DELGADO ORUSCO, Eduardo, Entre el suelo y el cielo. Arte y arquitectura sacra en España, 1939-1975, Fundación institución Educativa SEK, Madrid, 2006.
• DOMENECH GIRBAU, Luis, Arquitectura española contemporánea, Blume, Barcelona, 1968.