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Before, the 15 of June of 1300, Don Diego Lopez de Haro signed in
Valladolid the Puebla Letter, the primitive nucleus of Bilbao consisted of a village that went away returning Villa and who was
based between mounts, in the zone where today he is San Antón. The
"beautiful ford" was in favor separated already of Ri'a and its left
margin characterized by its mines and the right, the fishing and
agriculture.
According to codices found by the historians Enriqueta Sesmero and Javier Enríquez, there was one
first foundation of Villa in 1285, hidden data by copying books during centuries. In any case, to Don
Diego it interested to him that the of Burgos merchants made arrive their merchandise at England through Bilbao
and not by Bermeo or Santander -, reason why created the port and it made the Puebla
Letter, that granted to Villa the monopoly of the transactions in a very ample geographic area.
At those moments, the fights between lineages - and in coming
centuries, of classes to impose the authority determine these decisions and the city-planning formation. Thus, in the 1300
dawn, Bilbao was a ortress and, until end of century XIV, it will consist
of the first three parallel streets (Brief, Artekale and Tenderi'a), surrounded by linen cloths of walls that connected a series of
Casas-Torre from the palace that was constructed in 1332 in the present location of San Antón. The commerce begins to blunt in that
century, the line of other villas of the peninsular North, along with the shipyards.
The prosperity of century XV will come marked by the export from the iron and the Castilian
wool. The precise large city of expansion, by its own growth, and in those years the walled enclosure is extended,
embracing the closed structure of the Seven Streets (first
Belosticalle, Old Slaughter, Barrenkale and Barrenkale Barrena are added to three). These gremiales routes will continue cultivating the
commercial activity and, at the end of century, a new extension occurs
towards low territories of a great Sandy ground that left from the suburb of San Nicholas until which soon it was the New
Seat, being demolished the walls.
This advance, called "Extension of the Shore", arrives until the north
of the church of Santiago and a more concentric plane is created what is today the street Mail, the "way new" or
Bidebarrieta and Santa Maria, forming. The one will be the corregidor Fortified height that
certifies the limits of Villa of clear commercial and marine vocation (in spite of the fire that suffered in 1571).
Thus, Bilbao and its first extension enter century XVI making Gallic of being the main
port of the Basque Country, with continuous traffic with Nantes and Brujas. Its commerce, supported by the investors
and the working character of the bilbainos, is flourishing, and it is accompanied by a demographic and
immigratory increase. In this context, the queen Doña Juana grants by Real Letter (Seville, 22 of
June of 1511) the creation of the "Consulate, House of Hiring, Court of the businessmen by sea and earth and
University of Bilbao", distinguishing of her competitor Towns.
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