Plaza de Somorrostro
It takes its name from the Somorrostro valley, in Biscay, a mining district of Las Encartaciones where the battles that marked the last Carlist war were fought.
The name travels from the left bank of the Bilbao estuary. Until the early nineteenth century, Somorrostro was one of the republics that made up the Biscayan Encartaciones, a valley of farming and mining councils looking out on the Cantabrian Sea. From there came much of the iron that fed Bilbao’s steelworks.
The valley’s fame was forged in the first months of 1874. Between the Barbadún marshes and the hills of Abanto the battles of Somorrostro were fought, among the bloodiest clashes of the third Carlist war. Tens of thousands of men faced off as many as three times for control of the road to Bilbao, and the outcome broke the Carlist siege of the town.
The square occupies a quiet corner of Ciudad Jardín, in Chamartín, far from the din that made the valley’s name. No record survives of exactly when the name was chosen, but the place name points plainly to that corner of Biscay.