#Monumento a la Vendimia by Miguel Ángel Sáinz Jiménez

[rabbitcruiser]

Haro, Spain (No. 10)

On October 27, 1891, Queen Regent María Cristina granted the town the recognition of city. The decree was achieved by the good offices of Senator for Life León López Francos, better known as Marquis of Francos and it indicated the reasons that led to this recognition "for the increase of its population, development of its agriculture, industry and commerce, and its constant adherence to the Constitutional Monarchy". Between 1901 and 1902 phylloxera affected all the vineyards of the city, causing the replacement or implantation of grafts with vine varieties resistant to the plague.

Although for a long time it was taken for granted that Haro together with Jerez de la Frontera were the first Spanish towns to have public lighting by electricity (so much so that when the first centenary of the installation was fulfilled, 1990, an attempt was made to carry out a twinning between these cities to commemorate this fact, although it was not effective), although it was not effective), new documents show that the installation carried out in Haro was based on previous experience of installations in other locations, since during the elaboration of the project the existing ones in Bilbao were mentioned or Pamplona. Although being something new drew attention to nearby towns and those who passed through Haro on the railway, giving rise to phrases such as "We are already in Haro that the lights are seen" (included in the anthem of the city) or "Haro, Paris and London" and at the time, for lack of precise research, That assertion came to be true.

Source: Wikipedia    

[rabbitcruiser]

Haro, Spain (No. 11)

On the arrival of light, on August 26, 1887, electric lighting was installed in the flour and fertilizer factory "La Minerva" in Haro by means of a Bleguet dynamo machine assembled by the Cork e Hijos de Santander house, becoming the first factory in the province that had successfully tested industrial electric lighting through the Austro-Hungarian system.​

In 1888 the lighting of the town by oil lamps was deficient, so at the beginning of January 1889 a letter was presented to the town hall regarding the installation of electric lighting and a commission was created for its study. On December 31 of that year the first bases were presented to place public lighting by means of electricity in the population.​

On January 26, Mayor Benito Francés read the economic conditions for the auction of public lighting through electricity, being approved.​

On March 10, he realized that the first auction for the facility had been deserted. It was presented again to auction on May 15 improving the remuneration for the service and only Gonzalo Hernández Zubiaurre was presented, with whom the contract would be formalized on May 23. There should be 8 light bulbs of 1000 spark plugs force that illuminate all night and 260 incandescent lamps of 16 spark plugs. The dynamos should be direct current.

The partial inauguration of the lighting took place on Sunday, September 7, 1890 at eleven thirty at night in the Plaza de la Paz, in which light bulbs were lit but there were problems with the spotlights, which would begin to work days later. At the end of the month there was the first installation of light in a private house, that of the titular doctor Antonio Ruiz Lapasapuente. The complete installation of the lighting according to contract was completed on January 1, 1891.

​ Source: Wikipedia