Arrigorriaga

Historia

Arrigorriaga is a town and municipality located in the province of Bizkaia, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. Arrigorriaga is located 7 km south of Bilbao and is part of Bilbao's metropolitan area. Its official population at the 2010 census was 12,358 inhabitants living on a land area of. It is conterminous with Bilbao and Basauri in the north, with Ugao-Miraballes and Zeberio in the south, with Zaratamo in the east and with Arrankudiaga and Alonsotegi in the west.Place NameArrigorriaga may be translated from Basque language as 'Place of red stones'. "Harri" ('stone'), "gorri" ('red') and the locative suffix "-aga" or also 'Place of naked stones', as "gorri" is a polisemic term that also means "naked, bare, incarnated". it exists a well-known legend that explains the origins of this name as "Place of red stones". This story begins in the 15th century, because it was written for the first time by the Basque chronicler Lope García de Salazar in his book Las Bienandanzas e Fortunas. As the tale says, Arrigorriaga was called Padura in the ancient times (marsh in Basque) and the legendary Battle of Padura in which people from Biscay and people from León fought each other took place. When the battle finished, won by people from Biscay, Padura was renamed as Arrigorriaga, because there was spilled so much blood, that the stones where painted red. The story was recovered and used by Sabino Arana in the 19th century as an instrument of Basque people's exaltation. Apart from this "romantic" thesis, there exist others, more prosaic theses, that confirm that the name has its origins in the iron mines that were in the locality. According to these theses, the name of the town could have been because of the iron ores that painted red the mount Ollargan or also, to the surface without any vegetation that was surrounded by, because of the mining operations nearby, "Pace of naked stones".