La Escuela Elemental de Artes e Industrias de Béjar (1852-1902)

Abstract

The Regional School of Arts and Crafts of Béjar (Salamanca) began its activity in 1886, although its precedents can be traced from 1852 in the Industrial School. At that time Béjar could claim to be one of the few manufacturing centres in the west of Spain, with a limping textile industry wich survived despite the onslaughts of the crisis. The technical teaching given in the educational centre of Béjar tried to incorporate the workers in the labour environment. The present article tries to provide a new perspective to the period between 1886 and 1901 managing new data from the institution archives, unprecedented up to now, and to ponder about the historical, social and economical context of the manufacturing town at the same time.