The graphic heritage of the province of Burgos collected in a reference book

Many times we pass by them, without noticing them, but they are part, not only of our daily lives, but also of the most everyday history and historical heritage. With this idea, years ago, Miguel Moreno Gallo, journalist and researcher, began to capture in the lens of his camera curious images, posters, advertisements, businesses that he found in his investigations in the different towns of the province.

In this way, the book that has just been published, ‘Burgos graphic heritage’, began. The work compiles a selection of 1,274 photographs, of the 15,000 images that he has collected in recent years. Carried out in 527 population centers in 256 municipalities of the province.

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The objective of the work is “to make known a graphic heritage that is being lost, I am convinced that these unique elements, which speak to us, tell us stories, possibly within 20 or 30 years, will be protected. Although in some places it is already beginning to be done, others are being lost due to the passage of time,” explains the author.

And although, as we said, his camera has captured these curious elements of our history for years, it was not until seven years ago when he began to carry out a systematic analysis of the graphic heritage of the province of Burgos spread throughout the buildings and facades, streets, corners. of the province, written from the 16th century to the present.

Thanks to this volume, you can see many curious things about our history. For example, the evolution of calligraphy that has been used in different eras, “Roman styles were used, modernist posters, the change in handwriting after the Civil War, European fashions, with more austere letters. It is also a variant to explore the history of our province,” explains Miguel Moreno.

The book is divided into two parts. On the one hand, the information signs “names of towns, streets, signs of towns, with blue tiles, dates, clocks, up to 40 fire insurance plates,” underlines the author of the book.

The shops are also collected, with the typography of their facades. Some as curious as the ‘Drug Warehouse’, a sign that still survives on Isilla de Aranda Street.

Pharmacies, trades, hardware stores, food stores, emblematic mosaics such as the one at Philips in Covanera, which is in a “regrettable” state.

Telegraph advertisements, post office, posters with the town hall public telephone. Some are unforgettable, such as the Teleclub sign, a meeting place for neighbors in the 1960s that initially served as a meeting place to watch TV programming, but as time went by, it became a social center. They remain as a testimony of the past in Agés, Los Balbases or Iglesiarrubia.

Perhaps one of the best known is the Chilean Nitrate tile, an image that accompanied many towns in the province. It was an advertisement for a product, a fertilizer that especially became popular in agricultural areas. In other places in Spain, such as La Palma, it has been specially protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest. And it is also beginning to be done in the towns of Extremadura, where they preserve it.

In Burgos some are still in good condition, such as Ameyugo, Estépar or Mecerreyes. Along with them, another less known, but also important, such as Norwegian Nitrate, competition of the previous product, which is found in the Ribera area, in municipalities such as Roa, Fuentecén or Zuzones.

In a second part, Moreno has compiled, under the name of ideological texts engraved on the wall such as gratitude, nobility, donors who helped the construction of buildings, schools, illustrious children, epigraphs and “wonderful” sentences such as the one found in the walls of the town of Iglesias ‘Neither against the King, nor against the law’, ‘Live well, you must die’ or ‘Work melts all vices’ “have been speaking from the wall for centuries to all who love them read,” explains Moreno.

The author also highlights the Cheers “which are still hooligan paintings, in Burgos they said there were none, but I have already recovered 180 monograms from the 17th century. “They are living history and are in danger of disappearing.”

A text that is completed with the history of the Burgos earthenware factory, which was the one that made most of the street signs, and names of towns following a 19th century order that established the obligation to label.

Most of these little gems are not protected despite the undoubted value they contain. In 2019, the Burgos city council marked some facades of historic businesses that, although they have changed their activity, have maintained their exterior essence such as ‘A la Villa de Madrid, or the old Sedano Bookstore. In 2022 the list was expanded; in the current PGOU, at least 17 businesses should be protected.

The book, published by the printing press of the Provincial Council of Burgos, is now available in bookstores with a price of 25 euros. 250 copies have been published.