History of The Bilbao neighbourhoods of San Ignacio and Elorrieta
San Ignacio and Elorrieta are two neighbourhoods of Bilbao with a rich industrial history. San Ignacio dates back to 1945 when it was built to accommodate families who came to Bizkaia mainly to work in the industry. It has working and middle class houses, designed with squares and green areas. From the end of 19th century, Elorrieta was home to leading industries and services; special mention should be made of the historical 1900 Pumping Station, the first modern wastewater purification system in the whole of Spain.
A bit of history
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Leaving the Deusto neighbourhood and heading towards the coast on the right bank, we arrive at the Bilbao neighbourhoods of San Ignacio and Elorrieta. The origins of San Ignacio date back to the 1950s, although construction began in the Deusto Valley in 1945 by the Obra Sindical del Hogar San Ignacio de Loyola, from which it took its name.
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This “bedroom community” was designed as part of the 1943 Bilbao General Urban and Regional Development Plan in response to the large influx of immigrants who came to Bilbao to work in industry after the Civil War.
On 16 June 1945, the contract for the construction of the neighbourhood was finally awarded. A month later, the first phase began, which would last for a decade. At the end of 1952, the second phase of San Ignacio was announced, which would include 2,332 new homes of the same type, extending the neighbourhood towards the Deusto Canal.
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The San Ignacio neighbourhood project was supervised by the chief architect of the National Housing Institute, José Fonseca, and involved municipal architects Germán Aguirre (1912-1989), Hilario Imaz Arrieta (1894-1968) and the architect of the Obra Sindical del Hogar in the province, Luis Lorenzo Blanc (1912-1991).
Up to 11 housing types were used and varied depending on the number of bedrooms: 512 units with three bedrooms, 448 with four bedrooms and 72 with two bedrooms. The largest had a floor area of 82 square metres, the next 100 square metres and the smallest 60 square metres. These dwellings were intended for the middle class, consisting of bank and commercial employees, civil servants and skilled technicians with daily wages of between 30 and 35 pesetas, or for skilled workers, operators and labourers who earned more than 20 pesetas a day.
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The architecture follows a grid pattern, under which different building models are combined with open spaces, squares and green areas directly linked to the dwellings. The Deusto Canal was built after the neighbourhood, which had a major impact on much of the San Ignacio-Elorrieta area, as the canal became a port area, eliminating the continuation of La Ribera and isolating it from the rest of the neighbourhood.
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Bordering the city of Bilbao and sharing a border with Erandio is the neighbourhood of Elorrieta, which underwent a transformation at the end of the 19th century. Located on a bend in the Bilbao estuary, the Works Board reshaped and straightened the riverbed, moving it westwards from Punta de Zorrotza. Between 1880 and 1884, the lower part of Mount Sepurukoatxa was drained, gaining significant land from the estuary. The Port Works Board sold these newly obtained plots to industrial companies.
Among the first companies to establish themselves there were the Burt Boulton and Haywood Company, which set up a tar factory, acquired in 1921 by Altos Hornos de Vizcaya, the Spanish Dynamite Company and Tubos Forjados. Later, in 1916, Aceros de Elorrieta also joined this industrial landscape.
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The Deusto City Council also established essential services in Elorrieta, including a slaughterhouse in 1893 and a school in 1906. The Elorrieta Pumping Station, the first wastewater treatment plant in the entire country, dates from this period, and was inaugurated in 1900 with the aim of responding to a cholera epidemic, which has since been restored and declared a Cultural Asset of Special Protection by the Basque Government in the monumental complex category in 2022.