History of La Ceres flour factory

The first building with a concrete structure in Spain.

A bit of history

  • Although the origin of this flour business dates back to 1871, the current building was built in 1899 by the entrepreneurial drive of the Ugalde family, which committed to a then trailblazing, modern and innovative building technique: reinforced concrete. This material allowed the new factory to be less vulnerable to fire while also having flexible spaces where the milling machinery could be stored.

  • La Ceres was, in fact, the first reinforced concrete building built in Spain and it was declared a monument by the Basque government in 1998.

  • Its architect, Federico de Ugalde, chose the Hennebique system, a French company that a few years earlier had been responsible for remodelling another flour factory in Portugal. The building soon ceased manufacturing and was dedicated to storage first and was then divided into several workshops and businesses later. This caused it to be subject to a variety of transformations, with another floor being added and the original sloped roof being lost.

  • After it was declared a monument it was remodelled for residential use, recovering most of its original look, with a mansard roof similar to the one Federico de Ugalde designed in 1899.