C.5 AN ESSENTIAL VISIT TO THE ARCHIVES

Thanks to the digitising of records, its is now possible to trace the history of this site in detail and obtain comprehensive information that helps to explain how it reached its current situation. Documents held in a number of archives have provided us with essential information, and the joint efforts of archivists and researchers from the University of the Basque Country have gradually brought to light more and more details of the history of the Punta Begoña Galleries.

Written reports, photographs, plans and audiovisual records reveal, for instance, that these galleries were once part of a much larger complex: an estate which was the private home of one of the great families of its time. In 1906, entrepreneur Horacio Echevarrieta inherited a plot of land that his father, Cosme, had purchased at Punta Begoña. He subsequently bought up six adjacent plots, giving him a property with a surface area of 13,250 m². Four years later, he had an Old English style summer residence built here, along with a modest gatehouse and adjacent garage.

This information helps us to establish a time-line and learn exactly why the galleries were built and what they were originally intended to be used for. It also helps to identify earlier features and influences that affected their design, the building techniques used and their decoration, and gives clues as to what those elements that have not survived must have looked like. Such records are a useful supplement to the investigations carried out on the structure itself, and are consulted frequently by all those of us who are involved in the restoration project.

We have set up a Documentation Centre and Catalogue of Drawings and Records, where all the documentation is recorded in detail and organised so that it can be used by researchers.