History of Punta Zorrotza
Along with the Burtzeña area of Barakaldo, Punta Zorrotza is home to one of the largest concentrations of protected industrial monuments in Spain.
A bit of history
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"Et otorgo vos que ayades por vros terminos desde como toma el puntal de fondon de corroça do se juntan amas las aguas arriba del agua arriba que viene de balmaseda dende fasta el arroyo que viene por somo del canpo de çornoça que es en derecho de percheta et dende do se pega el arroyo daçordoiaga et dendeasi como ba el cerro arriba fasta el sel de heguiluz et a fagasarri et a olaluceta et a buyana de suso así como cima de la sierra y dende el bado de chabarri y dende como ba el camino de echabarri fasta la sierra de ganguren et dende fastal puntal de fondo de deusto en derecho de luchana así como abedes partidos los terminos y amojonados con los de çamudio et de alfoz duribe con todas las anchuras y exidos et montes et aguas y lugares que los dichos terminos han en tal guisa que podades labrar y plantar y ensanchar et facer todas ganancias y mejorías también de ruedas et de molinos como de todas las otras cosas et conprar et vender."
Diego López de Haro, Lord of Vizcaya, upon demarcating the limits of the town of Bilbao in its municipal charter.
Valladolid, 15 June 1300.
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Along with the Burtzeña area of Barakaldo, Punta Zorrotza is home to one of the largest concentrations of protected industrial monuments in Spain.
With the annexation of the elizate of Abando, to which Zorrotza belongs, in 1890 to Bilbao, the city incorporated strategic lands for the location of industrial activity: their magnificent orography (grasslands), their position as a crossroads (the Way of St. James toward Balmaseda and the plateau and the Coastal Way of St. James toward Castro Urdiales), the rail connections with the Bilbao-Portugalete line (1888) and the Bilbao-Santander line (1887), their location on the edge of the estuary, which allowed iron ore and other products to be transported, as well as the presence of nearby mineral reserves and, of course, the existence of nearby mountains and wood, making Punta Zorrotza one of the major industrial hubs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Thus, this area of Bilbao, the last place left for Bilbao to renew, is a patchwork of industrial remains through which you can learn about the industrialisation of Bizkaia: from the remains of iron ore loading docks to the old Primitiva mine; to the old Electra del Nervión building (today SADER), the first thermal power plant providing electricity to metropolitan Bilbao (1894); the soap factory Tapia, whose Chimbo soap democratised personal hygiene; the remains of SEIDA, Sociedad Española de Importación y Distribución de Automóviles, which began to assemble emblematic buses in Zorrotza in 1935; Grandes Molinos Vascos, designed in 1923 and can now be considered the most beautiful factory on the estuary; the remains of the cordage – a rig factory belonging to Real Astillero and Arsenal de Zorroza; the iron rail bridge by Pablo Alzola; the office building for Compañía Arrendataria del Monopolio de Petróleos, S.A., commonly known as CAMPSA; and the protected complex of Talleres de Zorroza – known in the neighbourhood as “the University” for the high qualifications its workers acquired – whose steel business now allows us to enjoy its British-influenced architecture as well as the components manufactured on site like the Cross of Gorbea (1910) and countless port cranes and bridges still in operation today in León, Palencia, Ourense, Zaragoza, Guadalquivir and more.