José Luis Oriol Urigüen Explained

José Luis Oriol Urigüen
Birth Name:José Luis Oriol
Birth Date:1877 11, df=yes
Birth Place:Bilbao
Death Place:Madrid
Nationality:Spanish
Known For:Politician
Occupation:architect
Party:Comunión Tradicionalista

José Luis de Oriol y Urigüen, 2nd Marquis of Casa Oriol (1877–1972), was a Spanish businessman, architect and politician. As an architect he designed few historicist residential buildings, some of them very prestigious today. As a businessman he was the moving spirit behind Hidroeléctrica Española and Talgo. As a politician he served as Conservative and Traditionalist MP, growing into a local Álava tycoon.

Family and youth

José Luis Valentin Oriol was born[1] to a distinguished Catalan landowner family, his first ancestors recorded in the 17th century.[2] The brother of his paternal grandfather, Buenaventura de Oriol y Salvador, was a prominent Carlist; in return for his service to the cause, Carlos VII made him marquis of Oriol in 1870.[3] José's father, José María de Oriol y Gordo (1842-1899),[4] pursued a military engineer career[5] and as a colonel[6] sided with the legitimists during the Third Carlist War.[7] Briefly on exile in France,[8] while the war was still ongoing he married Maria de los Dolores Tiburcia Urigüen Urigüen.[9] A native of Portugalete and daughter of a prominent member of the emerging Biscay bourgeoisie, Lucien Urigüen,[10] she was heir to a commercial fortune and descendant to a Liberal, anti-Carlist family.[11] The couple settled in Bilbao, where both José Luis and his younger sister María were born.[12] José studied architecture in Madrid, graduating as the first in class in 1903,[13] to continue with his studies later on in Paris.[14] In 1904 he married an alavesa,[15] Catalina de Urquijo Vitórica. Her father, Lucas Urquijo Urrutia, made his name as a highly successful Basque entrepreneur, co-founder of Hidroeléctrica Española,[16] co-owner of Banco Urquijo[17] and a number of other companies;[18] also Catalina's mother owned an immense fortune.[19] From 1905 to 1924 the couple, residing in Madrid, enjoyed birth of 8 children, José María, Lucas, Fernando, Antonio María, Sacramento, Teresa, Catalina[20] and Ignacio.[21] Four of their five sons enlisted later as the Carlist military volunteers, Requeté (the youngest one as a 13-year-old could not enlist).[22] Except Fernando, who died in combat,[23] all of them became well known figures in the Francoist Spain, either as public servants and politicians or businessmen and entrepreneurs. Many of their numerous offspring are currently present in various areas of public life in Spain, be it politics,[24] business[25] or arts.[26]

Architect

José Luis started his architect career mostly by work on family projects, usually large residential estates. The best known designs of this category are grand villas known as Palacio Oriol in Santurtzi (1902),[27] Palacio Arriluce in Neguri (1911)[28] and Palacio San Joséren in Getxo (1916),[29] all overlooking the Bay of Biscay and having been very esteemed locations until today, currently hosting luxurious hotels or prestigious social events.[30] Their style is usually described as various breeds of historicism, with most common references to quasi-medievalism, Romanticism and British Victorian style.

Probably Oriol's most impressive design is a monumental complex of the Medicine Faculty of the University of Valencia (1908), its façade described as eclectic in style[31] and spanning 300 yards. With the construction cost estimated at 4,4m pesetas and esthetical controversies raised, it was nevertheless applauded as a masterpiece of its time, combining technical innovation and high functionality.[32] Especially the large hospital, an elaborate system of pavilions and rooms accommodating 250 beds, with subterranean passages and open galleries, attracted general praise. Enormous scope of the project prolonged the construction work, plagued by a number of misfortunes, like strikes, fires and political instability; the complex was eventually officially opened in 1949.[33]

The best known Oriol's work, however, is casa de Montalbán, known today as Palacio del Retiro (1914). It was designed in the centre of Madrid as a family residence and office;[34] currently it hosts a luxury hotel.[35] The building, its style described as eclectic or neo-baroque, gained recognition and indeed notoriety for its lavish finishing, including stained-glass windows, fountains and frescos;[36] some of its features bordered extravagance, like elevators which carried horses to and from the rooftop exercise ring.[37]

Oriol went also beyond architecture, trying his hand in urban planning. He designed a never executed project intended to channel the Manzanares river in Madrid,[38] though it was dwarfed by polemics raised by another of his schemes. At that time Madrid was changing into the modern metropolis and kept struggling to cope with the rapidly increasing traffic; to this end, in 1919 Oriol presented his plan, named Reforma interna de Madrid, featuring a proposal to rebuild a section of the Gran Via.[39] His design, discussed also in public,[40] was eventually rejected by the municipal authorities.[41] Also his other designs did not escape criticism, charged with verbosity and grandiloquence.[42]

Businessman

Since 1907 Oriol was member of the executive board[43] of Hidroeléctrica Española,[44] the company run by his father-in-law.[45]

Notes and References

  1. most sources claim his birth year is 1877, see the Geneanet genealogical service here, though the Geneallnet web claims 1888, see here
  2. Alfonso Ballestero, José Ma de Oriol y Urquijo, Madrid 2014,, 9788483569153, chapter Antecedentes familiares, p. 1 (first page of the chapter, original pagination not available; all subsequent page references are marked as subsequent page in chapter)
  3. Ballestero 2014, p. 1
  4. José María de Oriol y Gordo entry at Geni service available here
  5. ABC 20.04.72 available here
  6. Ainhoa Arozamena Ayala, José Luis Oriol Urigüen, [in:] Auñamendi Eusko Entziklopedia available here, also La Vanguardia 09.08.1967 available here
  7. Ballestero 2014, p. 1; some sources claim he was Segundo jefe del Estado Mayor de Dorregarray, ABC 20.04.72 available here
  8. some sources claim he spent many years on exile and Jose Luis received his education in Paris, see Oriol y Urigüen, José Luis (1877-1972) entry at mcn.biografias available here
  9. on February 19, 1876, Ballestero 2014, p. 1; they met in the French San Juan da Luz, ABC 20.04.72 available here
  10. Gorka Pérez de la Peña Oleaga, Los Ensanches del muelle nuevo de Portugalete: (1869-1917), [in:] Cuadernos de sección. Historia-Geografía Donostia 21 (1993), p. 189, available here
  11. Ballestero 2014, p. 1; he took part in defense of Bilbao against the Carlists, ABC 20.04.72 available here, Ainhoa Arozamena Ayala, José Luis Oriol Urigüen
  12. Ballestero 2014, p. 4; Geni claims there was also one more sister, Isabel María de la Concepción Bárbara de Oriol y Urigüen see here
  13. Ballestero 2014, p. 4, ABC 20.04.72 available here
  14. Some sources claim he spent all his youth in Paris, see El Pais 05.11.85 available here
  15. Virginia López de Maturana, La construcción del imaginario simbólico en Vitoria durante el Franquismo: La alcaldía de Luis Ibarra (1957-1966), [in:] Sancho el sabio: Revista de cultura e investigación Vasca 36 (2013), p. 233; Ainhoa Arozamena Ayala, José Luis Oriol Urigüen describes her as Bilbaina
  16. set up in 1907 jointly with Juan Urrutia, an engineer and heart and soul of the technical dimension of the project, Ballestero 2014, p. 4
  17. set up by his brother, for details see Onésimo Díaz Hernández, Los primeros años del Banco Urquijo (1918-1931) [University of Navarre paper], available here
  18. like La Salobreña in Granada or Compañía Minero-Metalúrgica Los Guindos, Ballestero 2014, p. 4
  19. it consisted of a number of rural properties in Álava and urban estates in Madrid, Ballestero 2014, p. 5
  20. a carmelistan nun in Cerro, see El Pais 05.11.85 available here
  21. < see José Luis Valentín de Oriol y Urigüen entry at Geni available here
  22. Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013,, for Antonio Maria see pp. 444, 718, 798, 800, for Fernando see p. 444, for José Maria see p. 718, for Lucas María see pp. 718, 720, 800, 802, 804
  23. Luis Fernando de Oriol y Urquijo entry at Geni available here
  24. Monica Oriol Icaza, the first woman to lead Circulo de Empresarios, dubbed “la empresaria de hierro” is José Luis’ great-granddaughter, see here
  25. Inigo de Oriol y Ybarra was a CEO of Iberdrola, see El Pais 08.10.11 available here,
  26. Miquelo Oriol worked as architect and set up a design studio, see here, see also El Pais 28.01.00 available here
  27. its style is described as eclectic, combining Romanticism and English-style architecture, see here; currently it hosts a hotel, see here
  28. Francisco Vera Sempere, Notas históricas para el diseño de la exposición realizada con motivo del centenario del edificio de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Valencia 1909-2009, [in:] Acto académico y Exposición Conmemorativa 1909-2009. Centenario del Nuevo edificio de la Facultad de Medicina, Valencia 2009, p 9; some sources indicate its construction date as 1904, see here; some sources claim the building was co-designed by Oriol and Manuel Maria Smith Ybarra, see Manuel Maria Smith Ibarra, diseñador en Getxo, [in:] Memorias de Getxo service 20.04.12, available here; its style is described as having medieval references with elements of Victorian British style
  29. Palacio San Joseren is now part of Patrimonio Cultural de Getxo, its style summarized as medievalist here or eclectic here
  30. see official site of Palacio San Joseren here
  31. Mariano Torreño Calatayud, Arquitectura y urbanismo en Valencia, Valencia 2005,, 9788496419087, p. 137
  32. Vera Sempere 2009, p. 7
  33. Vera Sempere 2009, p. 13
  34. the building used to host the Talgo offices, see europeforvisitors site here
  35. see official Marriott page here
  36. europeforvisitors guide here
  37. Fodor's Travel tourist service available here
  38. El Pais 05.11.85 available here
  39. Ballestero 2014, p. 4, Miguel Cabañas Bravo, Amelia López-Yarto, Wifredo Rincón García (eds.), Arte, poder y sociedad en la España de los siglos XV a XX, Madrid 2008,, 9788400086374, p 270. Original document is available here
  40. El Sol 03.01.20 available here
  41. some sources claim the project was opposed by commercial tycoons like Horacio Echevarrieta, fearing an adverse impact on their business, Ballestero 2014, p. 4
  42. Torreño Calatayud 2005, p. 137
  43. named Consejo de Administración, Francisco Cayón García, Hidroeléctrica Española: un analis de sus primeros años de actividad (1907-1936), [in:] Revista de Historia Económica 20 (2002), p. 309
  44. in 1992 the company merged with Iberduero, constituting a new entity, Iberdrola, which is active until today, see its official history here
  45. Juan Carlos García Adan, Yolanda Diego Martín, El archive historic de Iberdrola y la industria eléctrica en España: fondos para la investigación histórica,

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