No one has chronicled the succession of Hondarribia’s port projects better than Ciriquiain-Gaiztarro. We extract here the passages he devotes to the topic in his work The Basque Maritime Ports.
The Outer Port.
“At the port of Asturiaga, there was likely no stone construction until the 18th century, neither for protection against waves and currents nor as a quay, making it a completely natural anchorage.” D. Serapio Múgica transcribes the Town Council act of January 25, 1609, in which the councillors lament that in the past, the port of Asturiaga had a wooden plank structure (planchada) with capstans, and that now everything was ruined.
Consequently, they agreed that “a plank structure of crossed and pegged wood should be built, with stone slabs placed in the panels so that the sea would not move it and it would remain stable, allowing any small boat to run aground at low or high tide, and that capstans should be installed in suitable locations on the plank so that the boats could be hauled ashore.”
Previously, there had been a wooden plank and some capstans, but by then, even that had disappeared. We can deduce the nature of the planchada from what they intended it to become: a wooden tongue on which small boats could dock even at low tide, with capstans to lift goods or nets. The concept of the planchada held by the Fuenterrabía councillors has likely not changed since then, and as now, it was to rest on vertical logs reinforced at the base, crossed with other timbers to form a solid frame, with stone slabs on the foundations to keep it in place. Even in a small cove, the previous planchada could have been “ruined” by erosion.
The description does not end there. The agreement continues, outlining the councillors’ project: “and from the islet in Asturiaga to the certan toward the castle, an attempt should be made to enclose it with stone so that the tiraña would not enter, and on the certan or the said islet, a low house with a solid roof should be built where nets and fishing and navigation gear could be stored and used, and where one could live and shelter comfortably at night.”
This second part of the project represented what might be called a wish or desired convenience for the fishermen, which they had not enjoyed before: to make the cove safer by enclosing with stones the gap the now-disappeared islet and the “certan,” i.e., the mainland toward the castle, so that the “tiraña” – the currents that disturbed the rest of anchored boats – would not enter.
Of course, the councillors did not consider this work easy, as they did not say it “must be done” but that it should be “attempted,” aware of the difficulties involved. However, they did not stop there, also planning a large shed on land where fishermen could spend the night when they could not enter Fuenterrabía, with their nets and fishing equipment.
It is unknown whether this project was carried out, but D. Serapio Múgica reports that half a century later, in 1659, the Hondarribia authorities brought from France two master stonemasons who had built the Socoa quay, and after hearing their advice, ordered the removal of large rocks that apparently posed a real hazard inside the cove.
Even then, they probably did not construct any masonry quay, because in 1730, taking advantage of the Provincial General Junta meeting in Fuenterrabía, they presented a memorandum stating that “although a small shelter could be arranged to take refuge until the storm subsided, and then return peacefully home by building a small quay at the site called Asturiaga, they lacked the means to do so…” The Junta deemed the reasonable and granted Fuenterrabía the proceeds of its tax assessment for four years to fund the intended works.
The provincial chronicler asserts, for unknown reasons, that the people of Fuenterrabía did not use the subsidy as intended. Nevertheless, in a new memorandum presented to the Junta in 1748, after lamenting the state of the cove and the hazards of the sandbar, they d they had not achieved their goal despite “the assistance provided by the 1730 General Junta, allocating the proceeds of the city’s 57 households for four years,” and ed a new subsidy “to complete the works,” a forwarded to the Diputación, which granted 300 pesos of 15 reales.
No further records of this port have been found, and we therefore do not know what was done in the 18th or even 19th centuries, but likely little. Perhaps as vessel tonnage increased, traffic in Fuenterrabía nearly ceased, and the port lost its raison d’être. Galician pataches no longer came to load timber for shipbuilding for the Royal Fleets in Ferrol, nor did chanuqueras with veins for the valley forges. Transportation and commerce operated on a different scale, much larger in volume, and Fuenterrabía’s estuary, so beautiful and evocative, retained only the charm of an old scene, a bathing beach, and a canal for small fishing steamers.
However, fishermen still needed a port, even if only a refuge. The law of December 30, 1912 granted Fuenterrabía this status, and shortly after, a suitable project was ordered. Two solutions were considered: locate the projected port in the old Asturiaga cove, or move it to the Gurutz-Aundi inlet upstream. After consulting technical reports, the latter option was chosen, and the Minister of Public Works, D. Javier de Ugarte, adopted son of the border town, visited Fuenterrabía on February 22, 1914, accompanied by technical personnel, to inspect the site and commence work, which was indeed uted as planned.
Since it was intended to shelter a few dozen small steamers and fishing boats, the projected port was simple: a dyke and counter-dyke with interior quays equipped with ramps, breakwaters, and mooring points. Its advantage was being outside the sandbar, which the Fuenterrabía vessels no longer had to cross.
But the port lasted little; perhaps due to poor construction, a sandy foundation, or the North dyke being too low, or all three. Storms in 1919 destroyed it, leaving it unusable and forcing vessels to again cross the sandbar to anchor in front of the Marina. Discussions resumed on whether to build the port at Asturiaga or Gurutz-Aundi, and finally the latter was chosen.
After several adjustments, D. Pedro Gaytán de Ayala formulated the definitive project in February 1933, following the main lines of the destroyed port. Learning from previous experience, the works were designed much more robustly, with the infrastructure built in cement bags up to 1.50 m above the equinoctial low tide, over which a 50-cm-thick concrete slab was placed, topped by the superstructure of the dyke. The North dyke’s defense included an artificial block breakwater of 30 tons up to 2.50 m above the equinoctial low tide, with a two-to-one slope, and in front, a 100-ton artificial block defense. The contract budget was 3,679,839.27 pesetas.