Foreword
The loss of historical references seems to be a fatal destiny which chases humanity. Sometimes we look at old ruins covered up by weeds and bushes and see nothing more than that, weeds and bushes, trying to recover what once upon a time was theirs.
The Royal Factories of
San Juan of Alcaraz, or Riópar, as they are known now, is a little rural
village, where most of its inhabitants and near all the many visitors who come
to visit us have lost the historical references that explain why this village
is here and why it is like that. For
many, Riópar is a vague souvenir of factories that produced brass articles for
domestic use and house decoration. But if we dig deeper we can find many details of the great
importance this industrial settlement had, the technological innovation that
was developed here, the enormous change that this rural society went through
and the European vocation that took
place in this village, lost nowhere among mountains.
The loss of historical references seems to be a fatal destiny which chases humanity. Sometimes we look at old ruins covered up by weeds and bushes and see nothing more than that, weeds and bushes, trying to recover what once upon a time was theirs.
But sometimes we feel we
have to dig and unearth old documents, trying to explain what we see.
The Royal Factories of
San Juan of Alcaraz, or Riópar, as they are known now, is a little rural
village, where most of its inhabitants and near all the many visitors who come
to visit us have lost the historical references that explain why this village
is here and why it is like that. For
many, Riópar is a vague souvenir of factories that produced brass articles for
domestic use and house decoration. But if we dig deeper we can find many details of the great
importance this industrial settlement had, the technological innovation that
was developed here, the enormous change that this rural society went through
and the European vocation that took
place in this village, lost nowhere among mountains.
Our task is to gather as
many documents as we can and we will be very pleased if we can contribute in
any way to a better knowledge of our dear village and its history.
I.- Background
The existence of the
Royal Factories of San Juan de Alcaraz is due, as other Royal Factories
disseminated throughout the Spanish geography, to a change of ideas and new
philosophies which took place with the arrival of the Bourbons dynasty to the
Spanish throne in the XVIII century: The
Illustration.
In the previous century
Spain was deeply sunk in itself and was isolated from intellectual, scientific
and technological advances that were taken place in other parts of Europe: we
were not able to produce porcelain, textiles, glass or cutlery sets, machinery,
arms, etc., which had to be imported from other countries, with the consequent
diminish of the royal treasury. Thus, it was necessary to send abroad able men
to learn these trades, or to get some masters from abroad to come to Spain
The Illustration came to
Spain
Besides of a
protectionist philosophy, the Bourbons were seeking the supply of much needed
articles to fill their palaces, without spending too much money on royalties and
taxes on imports. The Royal Factories of porcelain of El Buen Retiro, of
glass in La Granja
de San Idelfonso and of tapestry in Santa
Barbara la
Cavada (iron foundry) or the Royal Maestranzas de Sevilla, Barcelona
Thus, The Royal
factories of San Juan would become the first
foundry in Spain
© José Manuel Moreno
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