Point of interest 6/6

Rambla de Albox retaining wall

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After the terrible floods of 1891, the Ministry of Government appoints the Marquis of Aguilar de Campóo, Ventura García, as royal commissioner to manage the national subscription funds and to build in 1892 the retaining walls that will protect the town of Albox. These are the walls that we can see today.

A few years later, the queen regent Maria Cristina appointed Manuel Eguilior y Llaguno deputy in the court and later Minister of Finance, Public Health and Fine Arts. After the floods of 1891 he was appointed High Commissioner replacing the Royal Commissioner to, among other things, manage aid and state funds to bring water to several squares of the town for neighborhood use, the first being the marble fountain in the square, which is still preserved. The fountain was inaugurated in May 1903 on the occasion of the descent of the Virgen del Saliente.

Shortly afterwards, in recognition of his work, King Alfonso XIII awarded him the title of Count of Albox. Manuel Eguilior then built a palatial mansion in Limpias (Cantabria), his hometown, which is now a Parador de Turismo. In 1905 and to decorate the mansion, he commissioned the most important Spanish painter of the time, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, to paint a portrait of his wife, which can be seen today in the Ibáñez Museum in Olula del Río. In 1908 she commissioned Sorolla to paint her half-length portrait, which is still owned by her descendants.

The main economic activity of the area in the nineteenth century was the marchantería and muleteers who communicated with neighboring provinces. Thanks to the strategic location of the municipality and the use of its wadi as a natural highway.
In this space, around the walls, every Tuesday a market was held, where products from all parts of the province were traded.
This market reached the position of the second most important livestock fair in Spain.
The Albojenses, in these events, rented their stables to the visitors, where they were provided with grooming and food.

And with this brief tour through the history of Albox and some of its buildings of the nineteenth century we conclude the itinerary and we hope that it has been to your liking and has aroused your curiosity to come and stroll through the streets of our town and taste its rich gastronomy.

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