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Zumaia » History
Many are the questions that hang over certain aspects of the origins of Zumaia, but all historians agree that the town grew up around a monastery, that of Santa Maria, which in 1292 was donated by means of a privilege from the king of Castile Don Sancho IV to the convent of Roncesvalles, according to what is recorded in the first conserved parchment that mentions the location of "Zumaya". In spite of the different opinions on the location of the monastery, there is no doubt that the direct witnesses of the birth of this town were their monks, after which the inhabitants, dispersed along the Sehatz valley and weary with suffering continuous attacks from piracy and looting, decided to abandon their houses and build a walled and fortified town from where they could defend themselves in a group against the enemy. The place chosen was Zumaia for, among other reasons, its width, strategic location and direct links with the sea. But the town as such was not legally constituted until 1347, the year in which the king Alfonso XI conferred on its founders the first official recognition of the town of "Villagrana de Zumaya ", which was granted the fuero of San Sebastian. As far as the meaning of the name Zumaia goes, there are defenders of the theory that it comes from zuma or zume, a Basque word for a willow, a plant that was apparently in abundance in the zone. And with respect to Villagrana, there are those who have theorised on the possibility that it is due to the "seeds" produced by the then abundant holm-oaks.
In the 16th century, Zumaia had 136 houses, 70 of them distributed among the six streets that existed inside the wall, and the rest scattered among the three districts that were outside the walls. Altogether there were 108 resident surnames, 53 of them qualifying as nobles. Today there are no traces of that fortification whose view was only breached by the manor houses and towers, which could perform the same defensive function as the wall. The gates, including the Main Gate of the town and the great cross that presided over it, were destroyed in the middle of the 18th century to "clear the area more". The only natural gate, that of the barrier to the sea, was apparently the most dangerous, for being the most accessible. Since then, from the 19th century, the metal from the bells of the parish has been melted down countless times. The great old bell has long since been retired. The same one that the mayor ordered in 1578 be given six peels, three consecutive times so that the people would be aware of public meetings and attend them more assiduously. Municipal acts no longer begin the with that "reunited to the sound of the tolled bell.". Today two holm-oaks are no longer cut, as was done of old, on the eve of the General Assembly - celebrated in the villa every 18 years "to offer firewood and coal to the registrar of the province". Although, what has not changed is the decision, made precisely in one of these sessions, to name the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary as Patron of the Town. This was the 27 December, 1620, the same day in which Saint Ignatius of Loyola was chosen as the Patron Saint of Guipuzkoa. The passing of the years, or rather the centuries, has logically brought many changes in both the old municipal ordinances - drawn up in 1584 - and the town's development as well as in the customs and way of life of its residents. But it is the economic activity predominant in each time which is one of the best ways to appreciate the development of the town from its foundation to today.
The majority of the first inhabitants of the town were involved in agriculture, although their grouping in the same place accelerated the appearance of some professional and industrial activities. Towards the end of the 14th century ships were already being constructed on the estuary. A high percentage of the population was involved in fishing and sailing. The estuary then was very rich in fish, and it was possible to catch many species, among them salmon, trout, seafood and eels. Many combined coastal fishing with agriculture, although cement manufacture was by then already an important activity too, for which they took advantage of the material from the tertiary lands of the surrounding area. From the port, they exported merchandise to the Netherlands and imported manufactured products. There is even one historian who mentions the ferry that linked the town with the chapel of Santiago - a habitual lodging place for pilgrims on their way towards Santiago de Compostela - among the more remarkable methods of entry into Zumaia in the 16th century.
The two later centuries, the 17th and 18th, were not times of splendour; quite the opposite, in fact. Agriculture continued being the main economic base and activity to occupy the inhabitants, although Zumaia was still agriculturally short, especially in the production of wheat, maize and broad beans; up to the point that, one time in 1766, all the houses were checked to make sure nobody had kept more grain than necessary for their own upkeep. There were also people involved in both marine and land transport for merchandise, mainly iron, while fishing was still important and even grew. Indeed, some years before in1610, the San Telmo Brotherhood of Merchants was founded. It was at that time that emigration became more noticeable, which began towards the end of the 16th century - in 1616, Zumaia had 935 inhabitants - and it did not stop until up to two centuries later with the economic resurgence. The situation began to improve markedly in the 17th century, among other reasons because the drying of the salt marshes made the cultivation of the old reed beds possible, with the consequent increase in agricultural production, especially of maize. But this was not the only factor that contributed to this resurgence, since in the 19th century the cement factories became the motor of the economy of the town, and these, in turn, harnessed the commercial activity of the port. Land transport also improved at this time, since between the years 1882 and 1885 the road that links Zumaia with Getaria was built (which was already linked with San Sebastián). In 1900 the train, that linked Deba with Zarautz, arrived and in 1926 the Urola railroad, now disappeared, was opened. The improvement in communications, however, harmed the port of Bedua, which saw its commercial activity plummet due to the Urola bridge preventing the passage of boats to the river upstream.
The cement industry began to die out at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time as the naval industry had a strong resurgence and, shortly after that, the automobile industry. An important fact in this respect is that, in Zumaia and specifically in Yeregui Brothers, the first diesel engine in the whole State was built. This industrial peak caused, logically, a remarkable increase in the population, mainly due to immigration. The percentage of the different occupations that drove the economy of Zumaia had changed remarkably since the beginning of the previous century: in 1950, 56.1% of the population worked in industry, while only 17% were involved in agriculture. Years later the crisis arrived at Zumaia too, worsened by the minute with worker redundancies and even the closing of some large, emblematic factories of the time. And today, almost fifty years later, at the beginning of the 21st century, and after the creation of several more modest companies and those responding to new economic trends in the market, the percentages dance to the sound of the rhythm kept by the critical general economic situation. |
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