Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja

The Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja ("Royal Factory of Glass and Crystal of La Granja") is a glass factory in San Ildefonso near Segovia, Spain.[1] It was built as a royal manufactory in the eighteenth century. It is 7 miles (11 km) south east of Segovia on the CL-601 road.

Interior of the Real Fábrica de Cristales
Crystalware manufactured in Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja de San Ildefonso

History

It was established in 1727 by Philip V of Spain. In that year, funded by the crown, the Catalan artisan Buenaventura Sit installed a small oven which manufactured float glass for the windows and mirrors of the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, which was under construction in the 1720s. Sit had previously worked at Nuevo Baztán where a glass factory failed because of inadequate fuel supplies. At La Granja there was an abundant supply of wood for the factory in the Sierra de Guadarrama.

Bartolome Sureda y Miserol, previously director of the Real Fabrica de Porcelana del Buen Retiro, the Real Fabrica de Pano in Guadalajara, and the Real Fabrica de Loza de la Moncloa, became director of the Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja in 1822.[2] Glass blowing and glassware production could be viewed at the factory.[1] The wares of the royal factory were exported to the Americas, which caused financial losses to the other countries who exported as well.[3] By 1836, with the royal factory experiencing financial hardship, the Royal Treasury formally took over the facility which, unlike other royal factories, failed to financially support itself.

Fundación Centro Nacional del Vidrio

To revive the traditions of the Royal Glass Factory, the National Glass Centre Foundation was established in 1982 in the eighteenth-century building. The Ministerial Order of 1989 was formalized by law in 1994, its basic objective being “the promotion, development, education, research and dissemination of craftsmanship and history of glass manufacture artistic and other cultural and scientific activities related to art and art glass.”[4]

References
  1. Dunlop, Fiona; Soriano, Tino (2012). National Geographic Traveler: Spain, Fourth Edition. National Geographic Books. p. 226. ISBN 9781426209550.
  2. Brown, Jonathan; Mann, Richard G. (29 March 1991). Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. Oxford University Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-521-40107-4. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  3. Fioratti, Helen Costantino (2007). Illuminating their world: three hundred years of light, 1500. L'antiquaire & the Connoisseur, inc. p. 32.
  4. "Royal Glass Factory of La Granj, a Sobre Nosotros - Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja". realfabricadecristales. Retrieved 14 September 2012.

Bibliography
  • Julio Tomás Arribas, Historia de Segovia. Segovia, Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Segovia, 1987. ISBN 84-7580-471-3 (in Spanish).


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