Description

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The current supply plaza is located on land belonging to the old convent of St Francisco. Produced the confiscation of the assets of the regular clergy (Regency of Maria Cristina, government of Juan Alvarez Mendizabal, 1835-1836) the convent of St. Francisco would be bought in 1843 by Antonio Fernández, neighbor of Jaén, for a value of 800,000 reales. After a few years, the ownership of this building passed into the hands of the Sabater family.

 

In the municipal session of January 10, 1870, presided over by don Antonio Gimena Leon, the intention of don Ignacio Sabater, neighbor of Madrid, to build a supply plaza in the acquired site was announced. That writing was expressed in the following terms:

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"I have the honor of accompanying you with the list of general conditions with which I can take effect the construction of the Supply Plaza projected in this city. As you can see, I have not asked the City Council for any of the aids that in such circumstances are usually natural. On the other hand my object is to see if later the formation of a society can be realized in the shadow of which other industries can be established that are undoubtedly the one that this people needs in order to achieve the importance it deserves and that make creditor of it their excellent topographic position, the fertility of their soil, their proximity to the railroad and the banks of the Guadalquivir and other circumstances that not all the towns have the happiness of possessing.

The undersigned however has the powerful help of the Municipality that you so dignitely presides over for the expropriation that is necessary... he also trusts to declare this new industry exempt from the payment of contributions, even for a term of ten years and finally leave established the protection that this type of company naturally needs is the idea that the municipalities that succeed the current one do not abandon it, since it has carried out a project as costly as it is useful for the population.

Taking into account the undersigned, the convenience for the city in leaving... for divine worship the Church that is attached to the building, will remain in the state in which it finds itself for such a pious purpose, the company also proposing to endow it with a good organ of that lacks, and of some object that also needs so that the religious acts have the due solemnity, at the same time that forming this temple part of the square, the company will do those necessary expenses in harmony with the total of the project. God keep you many years. Andujar January 1, 1870."

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The negotiations with Mr. Sabater came to a successful conclusion and the "Industrial Center of the city of Andujar" was approved; starting, so ambitious project, with the construction of the Supply Plaza, which was inaugurated in July 1874. The Civil Governor and the Bishop of the Diocese of Jaén were guests of exception in that act. The opening of the Church of St. Francisco, the lighting of the municipal square, a banquet and the appointment of the city's favorite son to Don Ignacio Sabater, whose name was given, thereafter, to the old San Francisco Square, were the acts that constituted the program of that event, which coincided with the Count of the Quinteria, don Manuel de Cardenas y Cuadros, at the head of the corporation.

 

Over time the relations between the Andujar City Council and the aforementioned company cooled down when they tried to recover that public service, which had been granted in perpetuity. During the Second Republic, the Sabater family was forced to present a project for the renovation of the Supply Square due to the poor state in which it was located. That project of hygienization of the dependencies and consolidation of the same was signed by the architect don Pedro Rivas Ruiz. That plaza was largely destroyed by the effects of the civil war, hence the Sabater family had to submit to the City Council a new project in 1939, also signed by the aforementioned architect Don Pedro Rivas. Until 1949 the construction of the supply plaza would not be fully completed and the exploitation license was made for forty years.

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Don Rafael Antonio Casuso Quesada, researcher of the local architecture, expressed about the aforementioned project: "Much of the transcendence of the building lies in the defense it makes of the budgets of functionalist architecture, because in a building of its characteristics and taking into account account the ideology of the time (the project is presented with the official formula "Year of victory"), could have been used as a bastion of the new architectural ideals born of the Franco regime, but in the project there is no reference of type ideological ... All in all, the Supply Plaza supposes the culmination of functionalism in the city ... As functional as the total absence of decorative motifs, it is the general structure of the construction that manages to create a circular movement, the most suitable for create a space based on the transit of people through the different sales points ... Likewise, our architect puts special emphasis on the achievement of a space open to the population, in connection with it."

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In 1995 the supply Plaza began its remodeling process, Building and Construction Promotion was the one in charge of executing the works. Positions of sale, annexed dependencies and infrastructure in general were renovated. Currently (2005) it is proceeding to cover it to avoid inclement weather.

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Association of Friends of the Patrimony of Andujar