Eibar

Éibar (officially and in Basque Eibar) is a city and municipality in the province of Guipúzcoa, in the Basque Country in Spain. It belongs to the Bajo Deva region. It has an extension of 24.78 km² and 27,467 inhabitants (2021), with a population density of 1,106.42 inhab./km². It holds the title of "Very Exemplary City".

Located on the banks of the Ego river, in the Deva river basin, it borders the province of Vizcaya, forming the same urban complex with the neighboring town of Ermua. It was founded under the name of Villanueva de San Andrés de Éibar, but it has always been known by the name of Éibar. The town received the charter of constitution of the town on February 5, 1346.

Historically, the main economic activity has been based on the manufacture of iron, which gave rise to a thriving arms industry that gave it the nickname of «Villa armera» (now «Ciudad armera») and that diversified in the middle of the XX century, giving rise to a multitude of products.

Symbols

Its coat of arms is a gold Saint Andrew's cross in gules, and an azure border with the legend Eibar-ko hiri guziz eredugarria ("The very exemplary city of Éibar"). in gold. At the bell, a marquis crown and attached an oak branch and a laurel branch.

The flag is the coat of arms over white.

Toponymy

In 1346 Alfonso XI of Castile founded the town with the name Villanueva de San Andrés, to which de Heybar was immediately added. Already in documents from 1493 and 1494 include the names of Ehibar and Heybar. As Gregorio de Múgica indicates in his works, the place name has known different forms and none has excluded the others; Thus, the Armera City has been known as Villanueva de San Andrés de Heybar, and the current name has been written as Heibar, Eybar and Heivar. Nowadays Eibar is officially written in both Basque and Spanish, although in the latter language the spelling Éibar is required for its correct reading and pronunciation, without leaving for that reason of being the same place-name.

Regarding the meaning of the name Éibar, it seems clearly composed of the Basque word ibar, which means 'valley', the first term being unclear accompanying ibar. A very widespread and quite plausible version is the one that considers the name of the town a contraction of Ego ibar, meaning 'Valley of the Ego'. But it is not documented that the form Egóibar or the term Eguibar, which would be the intermediate form between Egóibar and Éibar, has ever made reference to this locality, despite being Eguibar from a fairly widespread Basque surname. As this hypothesis has not been proven, it can be thought that perhaps another term is at the origin of the name of this city; some speak of hegi, a word that means slope, summit or edge, depending on the dialect, and which also appears in other place names of the locality. Some other authors, such as Javier Elorza, cite the possibility that the first term is eho (grind) or some related word and that it refers to the large number of mills that have historically existed in the valley of the Ego.

Geography

Integrated in the region of Bajo Deva, it is located 54 kilometers from the capital of San Sebastian, adjacent to the province of Vizcaya. The municipal area is surrounded by the Autopista del Cantábrico (AP-8), by the Autopista del Norte (AP-1) and by the national highway N-634 between pK 60 and 65, as well as by the provincial highways GI-627, which connects with Placencia de las Armas, GI-2639, which goes to Elgueta, and GI-3950, which allows communication with Echevarria.

Northwest: Marquina-Jemein (Vizcaya) and Mallavia (Vizcaya)	North: Marquina-Jemein (Vizcaya)	Northeast: Elgoibar
West: Ermua (Vizcaya)		This: Elgoibar and Placence of Arms
Southwest: Zaldívar (Vizcaya)	South: Elgueta and Vergara	Sureste: Pleasure of Arms and Vergara

Eibar has, in addition to the urban nucleus, five rural neighbourhoods: Otaola-Kinarraga, Aginaga, Arrate, Mandiola and Gorosta.

It is surrounded by the Arrate, Akondia and Urko mountains to the north, and Galdaramiño and Illordo to the south.

Hydrography

The Ego River is the main river in the municipality, although it is true that the Deva River also passes through its territory. The Ego river flows into the Deva in Málzaga, already on the municipal border with Elgoibar and Placencia de las Armas. The tributaries of the Ego River, which come down from the mountains that surround the city, are small streams that form narrow valleys. The most important are the Abontza, the Matxaria, the Gorosta, the Txonta and the Kinarra.

All the rivers are greatly affected by the development of the city, which has modified their channels and their waters. Only in its upper basins can some remains of its primitive biological richness be found. The riverbeds have been covered by buildings, both industrial and urban, and their waters have been greatly affected by fecal and industrial contamination. Sewage and industrial water collection collectors are being installed for subsequent treatment, as well as discovering the channels as far as possible.

Orography

Eibar is surrounded by low mountains that enclose it in a deep valley due to its narrowness. Peaks such as Urko (795 m), Akondigana (749 m) and Garagoitxi (723 m) to the north, and Illordo (536 m), Salbatore (453 m) and Otaola (345 m) to the south stand out. The mountains are covered with forest, mostly dedicated to the logging of insignis pine, but there are still some patches of native oak, beech and birch vegetation, combined with fields dedicated to pasture.

The altitude oscillates between 795 meters (Urko Peak), on the border with the province of Vizcaya, and 90 meters at the mouth of the Ego River. The historic center rises to 121 meters above sea level.

Services

Transportation

Like the entire Bajo Deva region, Éibar is excellently communicated. The N-634 national highway crosses the city, connecting it with San Sebastián and Bilbao. Parallel to the national highway is the AP-8 motorway with two exits at both ends of the urban center (one of them already in Vizcaya), and in the Málzaga neighborhood the AP-8 joins the AP-1, which connects with Victory. A network of provincial and local roads link Éibar with the different towns and regions that surround it.

The narrow-gauge railway line belonging to the Euskotren network connects the region with the provincial capitals (in the urban section Ermua-Éibar it serves as a metropolitan railway), and from there you can connect by Renfe with the rest from Spain and Europe. The bus companies that operate providing regional, interregional and long-distance services in the area are PESA and Euskotren (affiliated with Lurraldebus), Bizkaibus and ALSA. The urban bus service Udalbus, which connects the different neighborhoods of Éibar, is managed by La Guipuzcoana.

Eibar has no airports, but the airports of Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria are less than an hour away by motorway. It also has no port, but the nearby port of Bilbao has connections to Portsmouth in England.

Tram Éibar-Ermua
Legend Towards Bilbao Ermua Errotabarri San Lorentzo Vizcaya-Guipúzcoa Unibertsitatea Girlfriend Ardantza Éibar Azitain Elgoibar Towards Donostia

Education

The educational infrastructure in Éibar stands out for the University School of Industrial Technical Engineering, originating from the old Labor University, belonging to the University of the Basque Country, the academic headquarters of the Basque Summer University, and the professional training school, a pioneer in Spain, known as the «School of Armory».

Armory School

The Armory School or Armeria Eskola is an Integrated Public Vocational Training Center that was the first Spanish professional school in which learning a profession was accompanied by theoretical and technical teaching. The "École d'Armerie" of Liège (Belgium) was taken as a reference.

The Armory School was very important for the industrial development of the city of Éibar and its area of influence, training most of the entrepreneurs and skilled workers who energized industrial development in the 1950s and 1960s. Its prestige it crossed local limits reaching the entire Spanish state, turning Éibar into the Mecca of Precision Mechanics and Armory centers throughout Spain.

Éibar University School of Industrial Technical Engineering

Belonging to the Guipúzcoa Campus of the University of the Basque Country, the Éibar University School of Industrial Technical Engineering is part of the Guipúzcoa School of Engineering that was founded in 2016 with the merger of the previous University School of Industrial Technical Engineering of Éibar and the Polytechnic School of Donostia.

The degree in technical engineering is taught in the specialty of Renewable Energy Engineering Degree. They have also taught Industrial Technical Engineering, specializing in Industrial Electronics and Industrial Technical Engineering, specializing in Mechanics.

On November 14, 1968, the classes and academic activities of the center began within the Labor University that was located in the town. This Labor University was the eleventh to be created and the only one in the Basque Country.

In 1988 the University School of Industrial Technical Engineering, specializing in Industrial Electronics, acquired its own personality and prepared for admission to the University of the Basque Country. This integration took place in 1994, with the support of the town halls, businessmen and other entities of the region.

In the XXI century, the University School shares the campus of the old Labor University with the Uni vocational training center Éibar-Ermua, which offers Baccalaureate and Training Cycles, and the Residential Center, which together with the university school formed the complex of the Universidad Laboral de Éibar first and The Integrated Teaching Center after.

Universidad Vasca de Verano

In 2001, the Basque Summer University (Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea (UEU)) established its headquarters in the Markeskua Palace in Éibar. The Basque Summer University has taught more than 1,800 courses face-to-face and since 2003 it has opened a distance training offer via the Internet.

In 2001, the Éibar city council and the Basque Summer University created the Juan San Martín scholarships with the aim of promoting research in Basque in the fields of study that Juan San Martín developed in his life: anthropology, linguistics, philology, toponymy, philosophy, literature, botany, art, history, journalism, ethnology, mountaineering and law.

In 2019, under the auspices of the University of the Basque Country, the GOI Center for the promotion of distance university education via the Internet was created. One of its first courses was the official master's degree necessary to be a Secondary Education teacher who is taught in Basque.

Administration and politics

In the 2019 municipal elections, the PSE-EE was the party with the most votes, but lost one councilor compared to the 2015 result, remaining two councilors short of an absolute majority. EAJ-PNV increased its percentage of the vote, gaining a councilor and surpassing EH Bildu as second force. The Elkarrekin Podemos coalition obtained a councilor, repeating the result obtained in 2015 by the Irabazi coalition.

These are the mayors who have governed the city council since the 1979 elections:

Mayors of Éibar	Start of mandate	End of mandate	Party
Jon Iraola Iriondo	2021	Continue	PSE-EE
Miguel de los Toyos Nazabal	2008	2021	PSE-EE
Iñaki Arriola López	1993	2008	PSE-EE
Aurora Bascaran Martínez	1987	1993	PSE-PSOE
Jesus Mary Agirre Arriola	1983	1987	EAJ-PNV
Mikel Larrañaga Mandiola	1979	1983	EAJ-PNV

History

Casa-torre Katillangua

Éibar stood on the communal side in the War of Communities

Engraving of Éibar in 1844

The prehistoric finds that have been made in the vicinity of the city testify to human presence as early as the Neolithic, around the 3rd millennium BC. When the Romans arrived in these lands they testified that the Caristians lived there. The Romans integrated the Deva valley into the conventus of Clunia, a political structure that was maintained until the Visigoths.

For some time, this part of the Deva Valley belonged to the kingdom of Pamplona-Nájera (which would later become the kingdom of Navarre) as part of the Duranguesado. When the area became the border between Guipúzcoa and the Señorío de Vizcaya it was called, on both sides of the dividing line, Marquina. The Marquina de Yuso and the Marquina de Suso were defined in the Deva valley, which extended through the valley of the Ego river in which the so-called Val de Ego for the management of the forges located in it. On the lands of Marquina de Suso the church of San Andrés was located, which had the concept of monasterial.

The first news about Éibar dates back to the year 1193 and refers to the house of the lords of Unzueta related to the Oñacino faction in the conflict between factions. In 1267 reference is made to the transfer of the patronage of the parish to the lords of Olaso from the neighboring town of Elgóibar by King Alfonso X the Wise.

On February 5, 1346, King Alfonso XI of Castile granted town privileges to the church of San Andrés. The new town is called Villanueva de San Andrés de Heybar.

After the uprising of the Count of Salvatierra in 1520, during the War of the Communities, Éibar was placed on the communal side, the royalist army defeating the resistance of Éibar and other Basque community towns after the defeat of the count's army de Salvatierra, Pedro López de Ayala, in the battle of Miñano Mayor on April 19, 1521.

The feudal families that dominated the territory of the town participated in the faction wars. Éibar, like the rest of the towns in the valley, maintained an iron industry based on ironworks and the manufacture of weapons.

In 1766, Éibar participated in the Machinada and years later, in 1794, it was attacked by the French, who destroyed the town.

In the XIX century, industrialization processes took place with the transformation of the guild system of production into an industrial system. Along with this process there is an important social movement. Already in the Carlist Wars, the eibarreses had opted for the liberal side in all of them. In the same way, at the end of the XIX century and in the first half of the XX the ideas of the international labor movement and socialists make a dent in Eibar society. On August 6, 1897, he lived his first strike for labor reasons and shortly after the labor movement would manage to make Éibar a benchmark in Spanish socialism. This would culminate in the early hours of Tuesday, April 14, 1931 with the proclamation of the Proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, when Éibar was the first Spanish town to carry it out. This earned it the award of the title of "Very Exemplary City".

The railway arrived in Éibar in 1887, when the Málzaga halt station was inaugurated, where an important line crossing took place. A few years later, in 1909, the Éibar railway station would be inaugurated.

Visit of Francisco Franco in 1949

The Civil War caused Éibar to be declared a "devastated region" as it was practically completely destroyed. The reconstruction gave way to significant industrial development and an increase in the population, which in a few years reached more than 40,000 inhabitants, even extending to neighboring towns.

Industrial and urban development took place in a complicated orography (the Ego valley is very narrow) that led to characteristic urban planning and architecture, both industrial and residential. The vertical development of the buildings together with the mix between industry and residence leads to difficult access to some developments, an issue that was mitigated with the use of mechanical means such as stairs and elevators.

The difficulty of expanding the industrial facilities makes many companies begin a transfer process to other places, mainly Duranguesado and Álava. Added to this fact was the industrial crisis that began in 1973 and severely affected Eibar's industrial infrastructure.

At the beginning of the XXI century, having lost almost half its population, a slow recovery began based on the industry and in services.

Economy

Statue of a booth, pune or pawn between whose functions was to bring water to the workshops

The economy of the municipality is based on the metal transformation industry with all kinds of products, highlighting those for the automotive auxiliary industry, but also household appliances, machine tools, microfusion, aluminum microfusion and weapons, now only hunting.

Industry and work have always been concepts that have made the inhabitants of Éibar proud, and that industry has historically been the manufacture of weapons. That is why it is known as the "gun city". In the last part of the XX century, Eibar's industry diversified its production by developing a wide range of different products. Productive activity intensified at the beginning of the XXI century with the incorporation of "new" technologies (computer science, telecommunications...). On December 20, 2010, it was declared by the Government of Spain as "City of Science and Innovation".

The first written document that refers to the Eibar arms industry is a request for two lombards dated in 1481. Already before, iron work in the forges was one of the important activities in its economy. The Éibar Arms Industry Museum displays the industrial history of Éibar and its region. From union production to the facilities of the Royal Weapons Factories in the neighboring town of Placencia de las Armas to the industrial revolution at the beginning of the century XX, with its rise and fall, shaped the feelings and idiosyncrasies of the people of today's city.

Industrial work, first in the forges and later in the union workshops, has always been the economic base of Éibar. Work, with its social component, formed a singular character in its inhabitants. A couplet sings:

In the hidden corner

There's a town, perhaps forgotten,

where the work is per law

that is pride without being arrogant.

The coexistence of the workshops with the houses, even installed in them, allowed the socialization of the different tasks that made up a product and the egalitarian relationship between those who performed them. This way of seeing work, linked to craftsmanship and therefore to the care put into the manufacturing carried out, was what determined, even before the emergence of labor movements and Marxist thought, a liberal, libertarian spirit, which was evident in the Carlist Wars, in which Éibar was always on the liberal side. Already in 1756, the date before the implantation of liberalism, the beginning of the gestation of this type of ideas can be verified. In Éibar, during the XIX century, the liberal candidate always came out in the elections, while in the neighboring towns it was the candidates traditionalists the winners. During the French occupation, an illegal organization was formed, led by Gaspar Jáuregui, which maintained a political structure parallel to the official one. Also the influence of economic liberalism, which was reflected in the establishment of customs in the Pyrenees instead of in the Ebro, made it possible to open markets for Eibar products (mainly weapons) in the rest of Spain. The impulse of the Ibaizábal family, which owned a white arms workshop and sold firearms, was important in this matter. Later, the roots of socialist ideas reached such an extreme that, after a hard strike, the creation of the first industrial cooperative in the country, the Alfa cooperative.

Éibar, partial view

The gun industry, from lombards manufactured in forges, through muzzle-loading and flintlock weapons, to those that use breech-loading ammunition, went through times of splendor and decline. Gunsmiths from Eibar were transferred to the arms factories in Oviedo and Trubia, where Eibar making was carried out, when the negative aspects of maintaining arms production close to the borders became clear, while at the same time they launched, with the scarce resources available to them., to the production of the latest foreign technologies using the copy and improve method, which managed to serve as the basis for modern and competitive production. The crises in the armory sector served to promote adventures in other branches of the industry; From them, and from the entrepreneurial spirit, industrial diversification was born, which managed to turn Eibar workshops from a corkscrew to a submachine gun, or from a sewing machine to a motorcycle.

It is very famous because it had the Lambretta motorcycle factory and the Abelux, Orbea, BH and G.A.C. bicycle factories. The manufacturing of sewing machines was also important (Alfa, a pioneer company in the cooperative movement). Although the small arms factories have already closed (let's not forget the STAR, Bonifacio Echeverría S.A., where weapons were manufactured that were exported to the whole world), which is what gives it its nickname, numerous small shotgun and rifle workshops remain.. The Official Firearms Testing Bank of Spain is located in Éibar, one of the three that exist in Europe.

It stands out for its machine tool production, the effect of the industrial revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It was a pioneer in the Basque Country in the installation of escalators outdoors, in the street, to facilitate access to high-rise neighborhoods.

Eibar's urban planning, very atypical, where industries and homes were mixed, for which it was said "Éibar is a workshop", is giving way to an architectural change in recent years: moving from an urban center full of small "workshops" (companies) in the arcades, to a new Éibar with a center open to all corners of the town. Accessible with the view and with a short walk. The city is humanized and places the Eibarres at its center: to enjoy its urban center, which becomes pedestrianized on weekends. The city has been embellished with a collection of commemorative statues of typical activities and customs, namely: the reception of the dulzaineros at the train station, some children taking to bless the cakes of San Blas in front of the parish church of San Andrés, and a worker going to collect water in the classic Urquizu fountain.

Untzaga Square and City Hall

Socially, Éibar has always been a progressive town. Already in the first Carlist War, very few residents of Éibar joined the Carlist side, the vast majority participating on the liberal side. So much so that in 1834, with the special permission of General Espartero, a combat battalion made up of women was constituted, who had already demonstrated their effectiveness in the fight in the defense of the town on July 26, 1834, like Espartero himself. He says in his letter that he sends to the Éibar City Council:

As the present request of the eibarresas rests on the practical demonstration that you have done since you know with the weapons in the hand denying the weakness of your sex having already bizarrely managed to defend that villa of July 26, I have the greatest pleasure to give my approval to form the battalion you wish and you will serve to pass the lists of the undivided who wish to form it.

This is stated verbatim in the book of the Historical Monograph of Éibar, written by Gregorio Mújica at the beginning of the 20th century. The progressive feeling of the people of Eibar allowed socialist ideas to take root in their people. Since the beginning of the XX century, the presence of the PSOE was very important, which is why Éibar can be considered the historical capital of Basque socialism.

Primary sector

Focused on rural neighbourhoods, it is represented by family farms in typical Basque rural houses, farmhouses or baserris. These agricultural and livestock farms are combined with work in factories, so they have a secondary character in the economy. Its products are intended for own consumption and trade in the markets of the region. The logging centered on the insignis pine that has colonized the old fields, pastures and orchards is relevant, as industrial work has more weight than agricultural work.

Secondary sector

Known as the arms city for its important arms industry, it has always developed a great industrial activity focused on metal manufacturing. Its industrial estates, where the workshops that were once scattered throughout the municipality are now located, are home to industries of all kinds. The machine tools, the manufacture of shotguns, the auxiliary car, sewing machines, bicycles, precision microfusion... a long and important etcetera consequence of the dynamism of Eibar crystallized in companies such as Orbea, Lambretta, Alfa, BH, STAR., G.A.C.... Among the industrial activities, it is worth highlighting the damascene craftsmanship that has traditionally been produced in the city. This artisan activity has been combined with the weaponry, turning some weapons into real jewels richly decorated with gold thread. Many Eibar companies later set up in other municipalities, both in nearby and more distant regions.

The Armory

From the very origins of the population, industry was established as one of the pillars of the Eibar economy. The elaboration of iron and the textile industry, common to other towns in the province, comes from ancient times. Already in 1500 Esteban de Garibay praised the fabrics made in Éibar.

The ironworks soon gave way to the manufacture of weapons of all kinds. The area comprised by Placencia de las Armas, Éibar, Elgóibar and Ermua was called the "gun zone", with Placencia as the center thanks to the Royal Weapons Factory located in that town, which centralized the trade of all the weapons of the region

The first written document that relates Éibar to arms production dates from 1482 and is the order of lombards by the Duke of Medina Sidonia. In 1538, the commission to manufacture 15,000 arquebuses was received, indicating the importance that Éibar had in the production of weapons even then. In 1735 the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana of Caracas establishes a guardianship over the arms production. The organization of production had been carried out in a guild-like manner, grouping into four main guilds, which were cashiers, gunners, key chains and riggers. The Company controlled production by setting prices and wages. The Real Compañía Guipuzcoana was replaced by the Compañía de Filipinas.

In 1865, the union organization disappeared and a capitalist one was adopted, which was accompanied by the industrial revolution and the new technological means that it brought. These advances are not only present in the means of production, but also in the product. The flintlock disappears, which is replaced by the percussion key; Later, breech-loading weapons and metallic cartridges appeared, to give way to the development of smokeless gunpowder, which facilitated automatic and semi-automatic systems. Repeating weapons and revolvers appear.

Soon, workshops owned by entrepreneurs began to be created. Among others, the firms Anitua y Charola, Orbea Hermanos, Larrañaga, Garate and Anitua emerged in Éibar..., and EusKalduna was born in Placencia. Industrial development is evident and brings with it an economic boom and highly relevant social development. At the beginning of the XX century, Éibar had 1,149 gunsmiths among a population of 6,583 inhabitants.

The First World War, after a boom in production, brought about a great crisis by being left with a large stock with no commercial outlet, closing the US market and complicating the European one. The way out of the arms crisis is achieved through the diversification of the product. That is the time when many companies change the manufacture of pistols for that of bicycles or sewing machines. This diversification becomes greater as the century progresses.

With the closure on May 27, 1997 of the STAR weapons factory, Bonifacio Echeverría S.A., Éibar lost the manufacture of weapons, being reduced to hunting and competition weapons, sectors that suffered a deep crisis in the 1980s, later stabilizing in a limited production of excellent quality with a very high artisanal component.

Damascened

Weapons in the Deva's armor zone always had some degree of engraved decoration. The introduction of damascening in the XIX century served to enrich the decoration of armory production.

Along with the decoration of gunsmith products, damascene plating developed, by itself, its own artisan industrial branch that expanded into jewelry products.

Service Sector

Éibar is the head of the Bajo Deva region and the main city with an equidistant location between Bilbao, San Sebastián and Vitoria. This makes the service sector highly developed. All kinds of regional services are focused on it: education, health, banking, commerce... Industrial activity also has its services in the city; the research center or the regional corporation have their headquarters there. The trade stands out for the presence of department stores and many quality shops as well as restaurants. The only El Corte Inglés center in the province of Guipúzcoa is located in Éibar, a large shopping center in Ego Gain inaugurated on November 26, 2009. Small merchants to improve their position have created the association Éibar Open Shopping Center. As for the hotel sector, the city has four establishments with a total of 112 rooms.

On January 18, 2007, the Museum dedicated to the arms industry was inaugurated on the top floor of Portalea.

Eibar companies

Old BH facilities

The main industrial companies in Eibar are (more than 50 workers):

• 2000 Transmissions Europe, S.A. (Iris Chains): roller chains.
• Aguirregomezcorta and Mendicute, S.A. (AGME): machine tool.
• Arizaga, Bastarrica and Cía, S.A. (ABC): Compressors.
• Engine Power Comp. Group Europe, S.A.: Automotive products.
• Alpha Foundations, S.L.: Casting Parts.
• Industrias Dej, S.A. (Teknia Estampación Dej): printing and cold metal sheeting.
• Jaz-Zubiaurre, S.A.: surface treatment.
• Alpha Microfusion, S.L.: metal parts by microfusion.
• Aluminium Microfusion, S.A.: metal parts by microfusion.
• Protected workshops Gureak, S.A.: electrical and mechanical assemblies
• The Helmet

Demographics

In 1750, Éibar had 1,500 inhabitants. The rise of the arms industry during the XIX century led to a hundred years later, in 1850, the population already being 5382 inhabitants. This increase was due to immigration seeking industrial work.

At the beginning of the XX century, Eibar had 6,583 inhabitants; in the first years of that century it had a significant increase, reaching the Republic with 15,000 inhabitants. The incidence of the Civil War reduced the number of people registered in the town but the subsequent industrial development gave a very important boost to the population.

As of the 1940s, a period of industrial expansion began. Companies diversify their products, trading weapons for bicycles, car parts, or sewing machines. Economic growth makes Éibar become a pole of attraction for immigration. Between 1945 and 1975 the population increased by 13,823 inhabitants, reaching the figure of 40,000 inhabitants. The serious industrial crisis that began in 1973 caused many factories to close their doors and others to locate in other municipalities looking for better land for the construction of the facilities. This gave rise to a population decline, which, supported by policies to reduce the population density of the Éibar-Ermua urban continuity, has led to a progressive loss of inhabitants, establishing itself at the beginning of the century XXI below 30,000.

Monuments and places of interest

Church of Saint Andrew

The orography of the city's location as well as the historical events it has experienced have marked the conservation of different monumental buildings. The important and excessive growth, both industrial and residential, that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, together with the scarcity of land that the narrowness of the valley produces, caused the demolition of many historic buildings that had been saved from the destruction produced in the War Civil. Éibar was the front line from September 1936 to April 1937. The destruction was such that it was included in the war damage reconstruction plan followed by the Devastated Regions organization. Already at the end of the 18th century it had been badly damaged by French troops who set it on fire, destroying it almost completely.

Missing buildings

There are some important buildings that have been demolished, for different reasons, in the last years of the XX century, among them are especially the following:

• Palacio de Zumaránalso known as Indianokua, of baroque style made by Sebastián de Zumarán at the beginning of 1772. It was ruined in 1951.

• Orbea Tower House or Unzaga tower house. Located in what is today the Untzaga Square, it was torn down for the expansion of it between 1899 and 1901. It was built in the centuryXVI by John of Orbea, who was the general treasurer of the kingdom of Aragon. It was a great Renaissance building with a remarkable baroque cover. It belonged to the family that emerged from the marriage union of the Isasis with the Orbea.
• Casa Mallea or Godoy, located in front of the church of San Andrés. After his melting down the coat of arms he moved to the San Telmo museum in San Sebastian.

• Casa-torre Katillangua medieval building built between the 15th and 16th centuries. In its surroundings there was a hermitage dedicated to San Lorenzo dating from 1610 that ordered the construction of María de Mallea and fell down in 1973 and a cruise of the same time.

• Ibargain Home: it was a two-storey house located in urban but rural environment. The upper floor had a form of attic, the entrance was formed to be warehouse to store labrance utensils used in the garden adjacent to the building behind it. It had 20 windows and balconies. The building was built in 1780 on an earlier one dating from 1705. He was tied to the Ibargain tower and he was called Ibarratorria. It was on the railway station, in fact, part of its land was for the construction of the railway line Durango Zumárraga. It fell down in 2017 on security issues.

• Convent of the Conception, building belonging to the Order of the Immaculate Conception. Built in the centuryXVI. In 1630 the sculptor vallisoletano Gregorio Fernandez finished the execution of the altarpieces of the church, among them the main altarpiece. He received great damage to the civil war and fell completely down in 1977 to build on his site the expansion of the school of Armería.

• Abbot Market, building built by Regions Devastadas in 1945 was demolished in 2008. He integrated the fire department into his structure. This building fulfilled its function as a staple with the only lack of underground parking deficiency. In 2008 it was melted with the intention of making a more modern equipment, a project that failed The dintel stone of the main entrance, on which the opening date appears and the one who executed it, at the Museo de la Industria Armera.
• Alpha, the Sociedad Anónima Cooperativa Mercantil y de Production de Armas de Fuego – Alfa was formed on October 28, 1920 following a hard workers' strike. Driven by the then Union of Pistoleros Workers of Éibar, which ended up integrating the General Workers' Union, was the first cooperative company in the Spanish state. From that company a powerful industrial group emerged that lived its years of splendor between 1950 and 1980.

The Alfa installations were located near the Eibarrés neurological centre, very close to Unzaga Square, occupying both banks of the Ego River, and covering it later. In 1929 the first building projected by the architect Augusto Aguirre was erected. A building with structure of beloved concrete, of three heights with flat cover, large windows and deafanous plants. After the civil war, in 1943, it was rebuilt by extending it with three more floors and an annexed body. This would be added in 1951 to the foundry and office building, which was completed in 1957. The office building had as its main element a large curved chaflan in which the main entrance of the company was located, wide and robust, elevated in height and with the windows running the facade until being broken by a vertical element that hides in its interior the scale of access and gives preamble to a large sign with the brand of the company, followed by which, the ships of the workshops begin.

• The Helmet: Olave, Solozabal and Cía, the name of the company owned by the brand El Casco, was founded in 1920 as an arms factory (rosting revolvers of calibres 32 and 38). In 1932 they take out a stapler, thus starting a product line, that of desktop objects, which would become main over the years. After the civil war, architect Raimundo Alberdi Abaunz is commissioned by new facilities in the Paguey area. A series of buildings were built up in successive expansions that formed an industrial set of more than 10,000 m2 that had housing for partners and employees.

The complex is erected on a rectangular plot with a structure of reinforced concrete and consists of four floors covered in additive roof. The facades are torn by dodging vains that allow the passage of light to a diaphanous interior while providing rhythm and compositional order to the property.

The main access door has a much more elaborate decoration, very moulded, with the plate cut in the lintel where the brand of the factory was, precisely an image of El Casco. It was shot down in the first semester of 2021 to build a housing building on its grounds.

In a vertice of the plot, a house of flats was built with a garden for the residence of the partners.

The buildings and elements of interest that have survived are classified as civil, religious, rural and industrial architecture.

Civil architecture

• Casa de Unzueta, century buildingXVII of baroque plot commanded to build by Angela María de Unzueta. Two of the facades, those that look at the Azitain neighborhood, are of stone chair in grey tones. It has four windows on each of its four floors. They all have bars or wrought iron balconies. In the center of the main facade is the shield of the Unzueta. The lineage of the Unzueta is linked to the origin of Éibar. It is currently part of the Salle educational complex.

• Aldatze Palace, building before the centuryXVII, since in that century the owner, Juan López de Iñarra, rebuilt and expanded it. It is a square-floor building with four-water roof with a large shield of the Iñarra on its facade. At the beginning of the centuryXX., about 1914, the nuns of Our Lady of Providence were established in the building, who made it the center of their school for girls, called the school of Santa Maria of Providence of Éibar, being mixed today.

• Markeskua Palace: this is a square floor palatial building and four mid-century heightsXVI made in Renaissance style. Its cover is four waters and the facades are made of sandstone. On the main façade on the arch of great dovelage that serves as access stands a great shield with the weapons of the Isasi: In the field of gold a siple tree and two sable wolves steep to the trunk and facing. Others bring: In azur field thirteen gold towers set of three in three and one non.

• House consistorial: this building can be considered pioneer in concrete construction in Guipúzcoa. It was designed by the architect Ramón Cortázar and inaugurated on September 14, 1901.

• Coliseum Theater: It is the work of the Navarre architect Victor Eusa Razquin. The Coliseum of Éibar began to plan in 1947 as a cinema and theatre room; it opened its doors in 1949 and closed in 1987. It is an expressionist and classicist building with some elements of modernist ornamentation on its facade. His stage was in the form of equilateral triangle with ten meters of side. He reopened his doors on 23 March 2007 after a major reform led by the architect Martin Herrera.

• Frontón Astelena: called the Piece of the ball by hand, is a short Basque ball fronton where you can dispute the hand and short shovel patterns. Its court has a width of 11 m, a length of 41 and a height of 9 meters. It was inaugurated in 1904 and has been reformed on several occasions. The last one between 2006 and 2007, to meet the current requirements. It is, next to the Municipal de Vergara, the dean of all who host professional ball games.

• Armory School, building built by architect Augusto Aguirre. The works began on January 6, 1913; it was a three-storey rectangular building open to a garden care. On the ground floor were the machinery workshop, the warehouse, the library, the museum, the physics cabinet and the address; on the first floor were the classrooms and the adjustment room, with 75 jobs. On the last floor there were two math classrooms and one drawing.

The original building was heavily damaged during the civil war and was rebuilt after it. Then, in 1950, important expansion works were carried out which continued, in different stages, until the end of the centuryXX..

Along with these monuments, we must also highlight the house number 6 on Txirio street and the Ibarrecruz and Urkusua fountains, as well as the "Casa Sindical", a representative building of the architecture developed during the Franco regime, which was built on the Casa del Pueblo of the PSOE and later returned to the PSOE and the UGT.

AP-8 Viaduct on Txonta, projected by the road engineer Ginés Aparicio in 1972

Industrial architecture

• Casa workshop Zamacola, industrial and housing complex located on the right bank of the Ego River for the manufacture of weapons. The industrial installation made at the beginning of the centuryXX., it is a complete machining workshop moved by hydraulic motor force, using the water of the river, and distribution through wooden poles and leather straps. It was declared Cultural Bien, with the category of Monument by the Basque government on July 25, 2015.

• Alpha Microfusion, the company Alfa, the first industrial cooperative founded in 1920, was the most important company in Éibar and had a relevant building already disappeared. Within the various activities of the Alpha Group in 1953, it opened a mimicrofusion plant which in 1975 extended and moved to new facilities. The project was commissioned by the architect Miguel Angel Lazpita Barrenechea who designs a representative building with a bold and dynamic image, surrounded by a small garden and formed by three different bodies, destined for three uses, also different, offices, services and manufacturing interconnected by a covered corridor.

The offices are resolved by means of a broken curtain wall, of dynamic profile, crowned by a polygonal metallic auction, closes the set in its most visible part in which the fully glazed staircase is located which stands out over the rest of the building being an exterior reference point of the same. The glazing of the staircase, which contains a monumental staircase of reinforced concrete visible from the outside, is merged into a curtain wall that runs the facade but zigzagante form. The glazed facade, thus converted into a presentation letter of the plant, also houses an exhibition area of manufactured products.

Next to the landscaped area that runs through the entire length of the plant on the side visible by the public, a concrete wall has been laid with the brand of the house.

• Aguirre and Aranzábal AYA (Portalea), former industrial building of the Aguirre and Aranzábal shotgun company, AYA. It is a rational industrial building made in concrete on several floors. Projected by the architect Raimundo Alberdi and Abaunz in 1936 and built a few years later. Between 1956 and 1960, expansion works were carried out, giving it its present appearance.

Aguirre and Aranzabal occupied the building until 1985 in which, as part of the failed reconversion of the shotgun that was sponsored by the Basque government, he left the building, which passed into municipal hands. The central body of communication, which houses the stairs and the elevators, stands in height over the staggered terrace structure that culminate the other floors. On it is drawn a lion, symbol of the brand of shotguns, and after the remodeling to make it a house of culture made by the architects Javier Marquet Artola, Luis María Zulaica Arsuaga and José Manuel Muñargorri Palá, in the year 1996 that it was the year in which it became the house of culture of Éibar, denouncing itself "Portalea" as memory of the location in the area of an entrance. These facilities include the municipal library, an exhibition hall of 700 m2, a conference room of 113 armchairs and the Museo de la Industria Armera de Éibar.

Old building of Ojanguren and Marcaide (OJMAR), currently PAMPO Industries

• BOJ: In 1905 the company Barrenechea, Olañeta and Juaristi BOJ was founded by Manuel Barrenechea, Bernardo Olañeta and Vicente Juaristi. They are dedicated to making templates for armiers and machineries as well as tools for veterinarians, then their production would go through the line of small domestic hardware, whose star product was the corkscrew, especially the double lever patented in 1932. After the civil war they decided to build new workshops on Macharia Street and commission the project to the architect Raimundo Alberdi Abaunz who in 1939 erected a functional building in reinforced concrete on a rectangular and two-high floor with flat roof on terrace for future expansions.

• Lambretta: Lambretta Locomociones built two contiguous buildings (which are still preserved), one dedicated to workshops and another to offices, which have relevant features.

The project was commissioned in 1953 by the architect Joaquín Domínguez Elósegui, who also made modifications in the years 1956 and 1960. The definition of the needs of the company as well as the influence of the constructions of the Italian automobile industry (the performances for the Fiat of the engineer Giacomo Matté) were employed in an optimal use of the soil. The terrace of the building was used as a test track for motorcycles where a maximum speed of 50 km/h could be reached.

The building stands out for its large size, rises over a wide plinth covered with irregular stone tiles. In it they take body all the characteristics of the industrial architecture where the search for light makes the large windows take the lead in the facades coming to make the wall disappear, all made of concrete. The straight profiles lose a leading role in the summit where a combination of curves hosted the company's name. The interior is diaphanous, making the space open the main key for the installation of the machine necessary for production.

Adjoined to the large workshop building is the administrative. This, projected next to the other, was not built until 1956. Elósegui adopts the curved corner that facilitates the adaptation of the facades and solves the finish by exalting the constructive starring to give relevance to the brand. The curved corner stands out in height and the pinnacle is lifted which is based on the flag masts of the brand.

Inside, on its four floors, the technical and administrative units are located. The reception, which was designed to give an image of the company, is from where the stairs and the elevator go. The care of the design is seen in the nobility of the materials used for its decoration, materials such as traventine marbles and jaspes, noble woods... give an idea of the importance of this space. The first floor houses the technical and administrative offices next to the office of the high management (management and technical director) the curve area is reserved for the council room. The other plants contain files and other services. The outer lining of this building was in ladrilleta with a face.

Building of the former Aurrerá foundation reused as offices and commercial premises as well as garages

• Fundiciones Aurrerá was founded in 1833 with the name of Sociedad Anónima Aurrera with the aim of meeting the needs of iron males of the eibarreses armors. It was located on Bidebarrieta Street, near the Ego River shore (now the street where the building is called Fundidores (Urtzaile in Basque). After the civil war, in 1940, it was decided to build new facilities and commissioned the project to the architect Raimundo Alberdi Abaunz who designed a building of floors, with structure of reinforced concrete and terrified roof.

The office building counters the rest of the industrial complex, which has a horizontal development, being a solution made the height, in a round and wide chaflan that grows like a tower. It creates a functional set of pure geometric lines, which hides inside the factory, the foundry. Wide open spaces of high height and with wide ventilation that conforms to the openings that crown the barrel vaults of the ships.

The facade was remodeled in 1990 giving it another finish. The ships were dedicated to other uses keeping the whole alive.

Industrial and housing building workshop of Pablo Soroa-Heinza

• Pablo Soroa-Heinza Workshop, located in the industrial area of Matsaria is an example of coexistence of workshops and houses and of rationalist style. It was built by the architect Raimundo Alberdi Abaunz in 1938 on behalf of Pablo Soroa for his company that had settled in the 20th centuryXX. in the surroundings of the railway station of Éibar. In 1932 the company’s production line was focused on manual tools and its main brand was Hercules that in 1994 would become Heinza. After the civil war, he reconstructs his workshops with this unique construction. The first two plants are of industrial use, while the rest are residential.

The building has a quadrangular plant on which a reinforced concrete structure with traditional roof (not the flat terrace that allows the extension) to four waters and flat tile is raised. The general lines follow the ones used by the industry of the time, large windows that guarantee the interior lighting, constructive sobriety and absence of decoration that is reduced to the staggered and dodging vains that pull the staircase, a resource of great expressivity that singularizes the building and makes it one of the most representative of Éibar.

• Mendiguren and Zarraua: located on Arragüeta Street, this construction housed in the second half of the centuryXX. to the company Mendiguren and Zarraua, dedicated to the manufacture of docks and wire works. This is a neighbourhood house and industrial ships. It was the work of Raimundo Alberdi and Abaunz and was performed in 1943. It is a building in the form of "L" of 8 heights built in reinforced concrete of which the basement, the ground floor and the first floor were dedicated to industrial activity and the rest to houses. The corner achaflanada, typical in the eibarresas buildings of that time, is of false chair until the first floor, the upper part, the one dedicated to houses, has a balcony that surrounded the entire facade with its mass concrete antepechos, adopted a curved shape. The last floor was topped with a curved roof. In 1953 the industrial ships (the work of Joaquín Domínguez Elósegui) were expanded and part of the river Ego (the work of Arístegui and Martínez Anido) was covered in 1957. After the location of Mendiguren and Zarraua in the town of Abadiano (Vizcaya) the ships were converted into office and trade premises.

• Beistegui Hermanos (BH): This is a couple of buildings located on the Urkizu promenade, one making a corner with Victor Sarasqueta and the other between Bidebarrieta and Arragüeta Street, both of which were built by Beistegui Hermanos in 1926. The master of works was Fernando Zumarraga. The company was created in 1910 as a gun factory. In 1923 he changed the weapons by making bicycles, which would be his main product becoming one of the first bike manufacturers in Spain. In 1926 the building of a new concrete building initially of two floors with flat roof began, before the works were finished a new plant would be added, then extended to the current six. The corner is corrected with an achaflated angle where the office area is located, holding the signature shield at the top. Then a new building would be erected next to it, and on the river Ego, which would complete the facilities of the company. After the march of Beistegui Brothers to Vitoria, both buildings were reused for new uses of all kinds.

• OJMAR: the company Ojanguren and Marcaide OJMAR, created in 1917, commissioned in 1957 the architect Ramón de Martiarena a new building for his workshops on Arane Street, workshops that until then were on 2nd of May near the Plaza de Unzaga. OJMAR, which had as its main activity the production of guns and then of compressed air rifles, changed its product line to focus on the manufacture of locksmith articles. In 1998 OJMAR moved to Elgoibar and the building was occupied by Pampo Industries dedicated to the manufacture of springs.

Ramon de Martiarena designed a building that adapted to the slope terrain where it was located. It made a large structure of reinforced concrete of four closed height with curved facades of great expressivity and with flat cover in anticipation of future expansions. It is a building of great visual strength where, alleged from the current of the time, space has been given to a certain decoration. The two curved chaflanes reinforce, by the treatment of the vains in them, the plasticity of the façade created by the purity of its lines, the expressivity by the doors in curve and the contrast between the zocalo pétreo and the smooth wall. The lower chafflan, which is the most visualized by its location, is where the main entrance door has been placed to the company. Door that occupies the whole curvature. On it stands up vertical five windows lines in each of the plants framed by six vertical concrete fajas. In the rear chaflan two windows open on each floor adapted to the curvature of the facade. The main facade, straight, adapts to the slope of the street, in its center is the door of access to the workshops, on each floor has large windows that make the facades remain, almost entirely, open to the natural light.

The interior is diaphanous, only broken by the columns of the concrete structure. The plants are perfectly communicated by means of a very rational system of stairs and forklifts allowing easy communication and management of the passage of people and of the production parts. It is a building with a distinctly urban structure, adapted to the needs and the environment and with a lot of flexibility of use.

• Analysis of the PAMPO Industry Building (formerly OJMAR)

Rural architecture

There are a number of interesting farmhouses, among them are; Eguiguren, Untzeta, Zelaia, Zozola, those of Kutunegieta that form a defined group, Areta, Iraegi Handikoa, Barrenetxea, Gisasola, Suinaga, Iraragorri, San Juan, Ezkaregi, Ibar-gain, Pagei, Aritxulueta and Mandiola Azpikoa.

• Palace of Sagartegieta, also called Sarteitta, located in the Malzaga neighborhood. It is a neoclassical style rural palace of the centuryXVIII. This tower house belonged to the families of Sustaeta and Sagartegieta that were influential in the area. It is a square floor building with a small tower and a shield of weapons on the main entrance with the legend I'm Sagartegieta. Below, an ornament surrounds the inscription "Vinculada en 13 de maio de 1655 y corroborada en 23 de maio de 1765". After the civil war the building was abandoned. Declared Cultural Interest on November 19, 1980.

• Egocheagadated from the 18th century. The homonym family was engaged in the armera industry. Some of its members moved to Asturias, in the S.XIX, where weapons factories were installed: in Trubia and La Vega, Oviedo, to remove them from the French border. Descendants of the Egocheaga, in Asturias, are Teodoro López-Cuesta, ex-rector of the University of Oviedo and Jorge Egocheaga, alpinist and doctor.

• Zozola Homedeclared a good cultural interest of the Basque Country. The original building was about 18x15 meters rectangular, developed on two floors and was covered by a roof to two waters. Today it presents a higher volume to the south, with one more plant and covered to four waters.

• Kutunegieta Erdikoa, two-storey building and rectangular floor cabin with perpendicular cavalry to the main facade, with two-water roof. Made of masonry and sillery auctions. Ground floor with two accesses and two windows, first floor with balcony and three windows. To the sides and to the rear it has a townhouse, in the back a gothic trace window. Declared Cultural Interest on 14 October 1997.

• Kutunegieta Goengua, small hamlet of a plant and van of rectangular plant and covered to two waters and cavalette perpendicular to the main facade. Made in masonry with sillery in limestone. The loft, open in the hastial, presents a central post and two symmetrical poles to the sides. The space between them is enclosed by a gallery of degraded wooden windows originating in the centuryXVI. Declared as a Cultural Interest Good on October 14, 1997.

Religious architecture

Church of the Carmen

In this section we must highlight the Aguinaga cemetery, some elements of the Urki cemetery, the crosses of Arrate (the one that crowns its summit) and Urki and the hermitages of San Salvador, San Pedro de Akondia, San Román de Zelarte, San Ildefonso de Santutxua, Santa Magdalena de Gorosta de San Martín de Egia, San Salvador and Santa Cruz. Over time some hermitages and churches have disappeared, such as the church of the Orbera complex, or the hermitage of San Rafael in Malzaga. In Éibar there were up to 9 hermitages.

• Church of Saint Andrew, although projected and built in the 16th and 17th centuries, it responds to the Gothic patterns, because of their constructive system and its forms, which remain in force in much of Europe, especially that of the north, with references to the Renaissance modes (columns, choir, windows and ocules), and baroque (portada). It is a building that emerges in the urban landscape of the annexed parish units, more modern, and the square-platform, built on a commercial plant with flat and accessible cover, without architectural value.

The building, with a strong volume, shows the simple interior plan. They highlight the unique shape of the tower and the smaller volumes of the two ochavado auctions of the presbytery and the feet, in addition to the main constructive elements, such as the counter-forces. All bodies, except the tower, are protected by sloping skirts, with the summit parallel to the main axis and resolution to various water adapted to the plant.

• Sanctuary of the Virgin of Arrate, the first news of the sanctuary dates from 1498, and is located in documentation concerning the communal mountains of the area, where the Virgin of Arrate is referred. It is currently converted into a sanctuary and the structure it presents belongs to the centuryXVII. It consists of a single rectangular nave, with a wooden vault, which hangs a former sailor in the form of a small boat. Close the ship an iron fence, baroque style. There is a Gothic waterfall at the entrance from an earlier building.

Inside you can contemplate the main altar, framed by four salomonic columns and presided by the Virgin of Arrate, of Gothic style, which belongs to the beginning of the centuryXIV. On both sides of the image are four canvases of the painter Eibarrés Ignacio Zuloaga, which were donated by his author. On the virgin, and crowning the whole, there is a mural painting of Renaissance style, presented as the background of a crucified Christ.

• Hermitage of Azitain, already quoted in 1556 as “Our Lady of the Palace” and in 1571 with the current name “Our Lady of Açitayn”. It has a porch of 17864 made using a half-point arch. It was restored between 1989 and 1991, ten years earlier, some altars were supposed to be worthless. In it stands out a crucified creature imberbe, baroque of the centuryXVII a natural size and an interesting Virgin with Child, possibly the centuryXVII.

• The parish church of San Miguel Arcángel of Aguinaga, gives parish service to the neighbors of the valley or the brotherhood of Soraen, the first news of the temple dates back to 1555 time from which the current building dates. A Romanesque baptismal font and a sculptural group of Mary and the Gothic Child are preserved inside.

• Urki Cruise, located the upper part of the Eibarrés district of Urki is a cruise from which there is written reference in the year 1506 (it is named next to those of Ibarra and Ulsaga) located in the vicinity of the road that united Éibar with Elgueta. Near it was located the hermitage of San Lorenzo dating from 1610 (he ordered it to build Maria de Mallea) and fell down in 1973 when the AP-8 motorway was built. On two round layers of limestone of 180x130 cm in diameter and about 20 cm in height is located a third square grad in 81 cm sandstone side by 27 cm high. On it the square pedestal of 75 cm of height. It bases with plinth and bull and has 37 cm of side and 18 of height. On the same, the smooth column and a single piece with entasis (the diameter ranges between 23.5 cm of the base, 24 of the entasis and 22 of the top) and 185 cm of height. The cross, located on a capital with a collar and abacco square of 30 cm and 18 in height, is a Greek cross of arms of 30 cm and round profile of 12 cm in diameter. On the contrary this crucified Christ and on the reverse the Virgin Mary. The total height of the cruise is 4.35 meters. The Takillangua house-tower is located in its surroundings.

• Church of Our Lady of the Carmenbelonging to the convent of Carmelitas Descalzos that settled in Éibar in 1934. It is a neo-gothic temple started to build in 1941 and inaugurated in 1956. It consists of three ships, the center higher than the sides separated by rows of columns. The exterior finish is from the 90s of the centuryXX..

• Church of San Miguel de Aguinaga located in the rural district of Aguinaga was built on an earlier temple whose first documentary references date back to the centuryXVI. The tower and the porch, of eminently rustic trace, were reconstructed in 1941 after being shot down by a temporary in February of that same year. In the interior stands out the baptismal font of medieval trace.

Culture

Architecture and urbanism

An important milestone in the industrial history of Éibar was the Industrial Products Exhibition of 1908. This exhibition, inaugurated on August 20 at the height of the euscara festivities and visited by King Alfonso XIII, was the culmination of industrial development in Eibar. The sample of the particular industrial revolution of the then town that had gone from union work to industrial. This development, which continued throughout the XX century until the crisis of 1973, and which had its maximum expression in the decades from 1950 and 1960, was reflected in the architecture and urban planning of the city.

Eibar's complicated orography (the Ego river valley is very narrow and abrupt) made it necessary to make use of the unique land, which together with the trade union tradition, specialization of different tasks in small workshops and even homes, led to a development very determined urban and architectural where industry, intermingled with housing, determines the urban growth of the population. The book Gipuzkoan Industry of the Deva River Basin, 1956–1957 published in San Sebastián in 1957 defines the problem in this way;

Increasing difficulties in the lack of land, due to the difficult topography that surrounds it, require the establishment of tight workshops and a high density of machines and operators, or to vertical development, thus increasing the use of the land with the number of overlapping plants, which makes it acquire its structure, in some sectors of the villa, the aspect of important population that it presents.
The problem of the house in Éibar, as a result of its dizzying population increase, presents overwhelming characters in the face of the limited possibilities of space, being forced to build density of strong buildings and to urbanize the steep hillsides that surround the villa, which brings together very expensive works and earth movements.

Industrial buildings in the Txonta neighbourhood

The industry begins to leave the trade union workshop and begins to need land for the establishment of the warehouses. The scarcity of land makes it necessary to carry out vertical constructions adapted to the orography, on the one hand carrying out heavy clearing and on the other carrying buildings whose floors are adapted to the irregularity of the terrain. The strongest companies build large and adapted industrial pavilions, but the social organization of work in Éibar, where the heritage of the union is present and the parity between employers and workers was very high (it has even been defined as white communism ) resulted in the creation of endless small intermixed workshops. In this way, an urban fabric of small workshops attached to the houses (usually located on the ground floor) is formed, surrounded by pavilions of larger industries. This already took shape at the beginning of the XX century. Industrial development was supported by rapid electrification that was based on investment individuals from the most powerful businessmen who sold the electricity that was left over in their industries to the small workshops and the system of payment for work done with which the workshops were related to each other.

The typical construction model is an apartment building, made of concrete (in the early days of a wooden structure), which were actually different rectangular workshops placed one on top of the other. The works were carried out mainly by master builders, with the presence of the minor architect. This architecture was conditioned by aspects of practicality, functionality and constructive and decorative economy.

The first warehouses were built on the farmland of their owners, still outside the urban center but close to it. They were constructions made with traditional materials, wooden structure, masonry walls, tile roofs, one or two floors of open-plan floors and illuminated with natural light through large windows along which the workstations were located, leaving the center from plants to machinery. The ornamentation of the facades was very scarce, although in some cases the moldings of the door and window openings stood out. In those works where the house was built on top, it was dignified with more ornamentation. The scarce ornamentation that was used led the city council to order the embellishment of some buildings.

A characteristic of industrial constructions in Eibar was the chamfer used to integrate the building into the environment when it was located on a corner lot. From the Beistegui Hermanos BH buildings, in Urkizu, to the Alfa pavilions, passing through the large Lambretta building, the chamfer became the main access façade, in the place where the main access to the offices was located. The hall is also located in it, in which the image of the company was represented, through careful decoration.

The roof became flat with the use of concrete. Normally a flat roof filled with water was made, or with a layer of grass, which serves as thermal insulation, allowing the easy expansion of the building. Access to this roof is via the stairs, so that its box is no longer hidden, protruding from the building.

The use of concrete facilitates the transparency of the plants and their lighting. The walls give way to the windows, which occupy almost all the space between pillars.

Declaration of Cultural Interest

The historic center of Éibar was declared of «Cultural Interest» on February 12, 1998. The characteristics of its location, border situation, within the commercial routes that connect the Cantabrian coast with the Iberian plateau and the orographic characteristics make up a set of interest, even more so with the changes that occurred in the XX century that make the urban structure of the medieval town invisible.

The area of interest to the land is delimited between the line of even numbers of Toribio Etxebarria street starting at 16 to 6 of Bidabarrieta street and from there to the corner of Iparkale with Bista Eder kalea, to continue along the even numbers of this street until passing through the back of Txiriokale and back to Toribio Etxeberria.

The church of San Andrés is the only relevant building within the area of interest and the area is shaped around it. In the block formed by Iparkale and Txiriokale streets, as well as the section of even numbers of this last street, the characteristic villain plot with a narrow façade and elongated plot can be traced.

Cultural Interest

Type of cultural interest: Resolution: 02-12-1998 BOPV (03-31-1998).

Type of cultural interest

Inventory

Resolution: 02-12-1998 BOPV (03-31-1998).

Language

In Éibar, along with Spanish, Basque is spoken in the Biscayan dialect variety with certain peculiarities. This Basque is called «euskera eibarrés», euskeria in Basque, it is a variant of the western or Biscayan dialect. The municipalities of the Deva river region make up this variant of the language that spans the Biscayne municipalities of Ermua, Mallavia and the Guipuzcoan municipalities of Anzuola, Vergara, Éibar, Elgueta and Placencia de las Armas. The Eibar variety of Basque has been the subject of several published studies, including works such as those by Toribio Echeverría Eibar's Verbal Inflections and Eibar's Dialectal Basque Lexicon or Juan San Martín, there are many scholars who have been delving into this variety of Euscara.

In the Ermua Agreement (Ermuko zina1968 where there were several young writers and euskaltzales (before the euskera) of Éibar

In June 1968, the so-called Ermuko zina, the Ermua Agreement, was signed in favor of the creation of the Basque language Batúa. Basque-language writers from Éibar such as Imanol Laspiur, Juan San Martín, Serafín Basauri and Bego Etxebarria were present at it. Bayona, that is, to create a unified Basque. There is a Eibar Basque Dictionary that is accessible from the Internet.

In 1936 practically the entire population was Basque^{[citation required]} (which uses Basque). With Franco's ban on the use of Basque after the Civil War, family transmission of Basque suffered a serious setback and its public use practically disappeared. This fact was intensified especially during the development experienced in the 1950s and 1960s of the XX century, when they reached the city many people from other parts of Spain who did not know the Basque language, causing the use of Basque in the population to decline rapidly in just one generation. At the end of the 1960s, the presence and use of Basque began to strengthen.^{[citation required]} After a recovery policy, based on literacy campaigns and Basque learning, it was possible for the Basque language to significantly improve its presence among the people of Eibar. In 1996, 49.5% of citizens were Basque-speaking (knowing and also using Spanish), 16.8% understood it, while 33.7% did not consider themselves Basque-speaking. In the 1998-1999 academic year, Primary and Secondary students, an age group that ranges from 2 to 16 years, were distributed as follows according to the different languages in which they were enrolled: only Basque, 51.4%, 47.1% bilingual and only 1.5% Spanish. In 2009, of the 27,600 inhabitants of the city, 52.6% were Basque speakers. 51.6% of the population.

The Eibarresa variety of Basque has been the subject of various studies that have led to the publication of a considerable amount of literature. From Toribio Echeverría with his works Verbal inflections of Éibar and Lexicón del euskera dialectal de Éibar to Juan San Martín, many scholars have been delving into this variety of Basque.

Museums

Museum and Civil War Interpretation Centre

The industrial and entrepreneurial character of Éibar and the stay for more than seven months, between September 1936 and April 1937, on the same front line during the Spanish Civil War have been collected in two important cultural facilities, the Museum of the Arms Industry of Éibar and the Interpretation Center of the Civil War Front in Éibar and the walk along the front line associated with it that runs through the mountains of Arrate, Kalamua and Akondia.

Museo de la Industria Armera

Located in the Aguirre y Aranzabal AYA building, an old shotgun factory converted into the Portealea cultural center, the Éibar Gun Industry, History of Art and Gunsmith Craft museum collects everything related to iron manufacturing, main economic activity of Éibar and its region throughout history and especially in the last part of the XIX century and all the 20th century. The museum was born from the collection of weapons that was created together with the foundation of the School of Armory to serve as a reference and sample of the gunsmith work carried out in the then town where the manufacture of weapons was its main product. Along with the arms industry, industrial diversity is shown, with products of all kinds, which developed during the 50s and 60s of the century XX and the subsequent technological evolution. The manufacture of shotguns and damascening have a prominent place.

Civil War Interpretation Centre

In September 1936, after the failed coup d'état of July 18, 1936 and the subsequent war escalation, the Northern Front stopped right in the mountains surrounding Éibar, in such a way that they left the industrious urban center at the bottom of a valley surrounded by insurgents against the legality of the republic. Éibar was a relevant city, due to its industrial importance and its significance. Cradle of the Second Spanish Republic, called the "capital of Basque socialism", the entire city was a weapons workshop. Although the industry was evacuated to safer places, as well as a large part of the civilian population, its symbology remained alive. General Mola's claim to take Madrid caused the northern front to stop, leaving Éibar on the front line for seven months.

The summits of the mountains that surround the city to the west of Karakate, Arrate, Kalamua, Urko and Akondia remained in the hands of the factions, while the loyal troops, made up of militias and political battalions, raised a line defense along its slopes. The situation continued until the end of April, on April 25 the city fell into factious hands, the front broke and advanced rapidly through Vizcaya.

With the aim of highlighting and publicizing these facts, the Éibar City Council created the Civil War Interpretation Center in Éibar, which is complemented by a tour of the remains of the line of the front on the slopes of Kalamua and Akondia duly documented.

The Interpretation Center is located in the premises of the former colonies of Arrate, in front of the sanctuary of the same name, and collects a series of war elements, weapons, supplies, ammunition... mannequins dressed in military uniforms of the two bills, models, explanatory panels and an audiovisual that expose and explain the characteristics of the place and what happened there during the time it was the front line, as well as the context before and after those events.

• Audiovisual of the Éibar Civil War Interpretation Centre

Parties

In the annual festive chronology of Éibar, the following festivals or customs stand out:

• New Year: the Eibarresa tradition is to go up to Mount Urko on the first day of the year.
• San Blas: February 3rd. The San Blas cake is typical in Éibar.
• Vespera de Santa Águeda: the image of Santa Águeda is in the hermitage of San Román in Aguinaga and on February 4th, the eibarresas bands depart to sing the coplas dedicated to the Holy.
• Carnivals: the great day of the carnivals is the eguen zuri or Thursday where all the schoolchildren go to the street with their koko-jantzi. The carnival Tuesday is the day reserved for the elders.
• San isidro: May 15 is the feast that the baser (labrators) of the region celebrate in Arrate with several acts. Among them a mass, popular food and stone trawling tests with oxen (idi-probak in Basque).
• St. John: the festivals of Éibar are held around the bonfire and fireworks. Receiving the Lens of Estella is the beginning of the holidays.
• Festivals of Arrate: the eibarress go up to Arrate on September 8th, because, according to tradition, the eibarress do not come from Paris, but from the ships hung in the church of Our Lady of Arrate.
• San Miguel: the 29th of September is celebrated on the day of San Miguel de Aguinaga, a party to which the passage of time has not affected.
• San Andrés: on November 30, the festival of San Andrés is celebrated, one of the festivals that has achieved the most boom in recent years thanks to the great Fair that is held in Éibar.
• Gaztainerre: it is held on the second Monday from the "day of anomas" or first of November. The eibarresa habit of eating snails and roasted chestnuts has endured to the present.
• The festivals of the different neighborhoods of the village are remarkable, the ones of the district of Amaña and those of San Cristobal (both in July).

Sports

The Sports Club is the most evident exponent of sports and culture that is lived in the town.

S. D. Eibar is the city's soccer club. It plays in the Spanish Second Division, being the least populated locality of those that correspond to the 42 First and Second teams, as well as the club with the lowest budget. He holds the record for consecutive years in Segunda with 18 seasons. It also had a handball club in the highest category, the JD Arrate.

A highly renowned cycling event is the Bicicleta Vasca (formerly the Bicicleta Eibarresa), which ends in the traditional ascent to Arrate. Historically, cycling events have been promoted from Éibar, with these competitions born in Éibar being the embryos of the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour of Spain. This was so because important bicycle factories such as Orbea, GAC or BH were born and had their headquarters in this city.

Likewise, the automobile climb to Arrate is classic.

Local sports equipment

• Eibar Sports Society, currently in the Second Division.
• Deportiva Youth Arrate, a basketball club currently missing, after descending administratively in the 2010/2011 season as it is unable to present the necessary endorsement for the stay in ASOBAL.
• Eibar Eskubaloia, club founded by the parents of the ex-jugators of the quarry of the J.D. Arrate in the 2011/2012 season.
• Eibar Rugby Taldea, in the Honor B Division of rugby.
• Club Deportivo Éibar, which consists of 13 sports-cultural sections and groups more than 2500 partners.
• Club Ciclista Eibarrés, organizer, among others, of the Euskal Bizikleta and Memorial Valenciaga.
• Urko14, a football team created in 2014 by young people of the fifth of 1993 and achieving in its first year of creation the promotion to Regional Preferente.
• Katu Kale Saskibaloia, Éibar Basketball Sports Club.
• Club Deportivo Urki

Twinned cities

Notable people