A hundred years have passed since that momentous day in August 1904 when King Alfonso XIII signed the decree that turned Elda from a town to a city, and this year it won the Valencia Community’s City of Culture prize. Once a  town whose principal economy was based on shoe-making – an industry that continues into the present day albeit in the midst of considerable turbulence – it has been the hard work and dedication of generations of residents that has turned it into an administrative capital of 54,000 inhabitants.

The story began on April 25, 1904, when the then president Antonio Maura,bumped into Elda’s mayor, José Joaquín González, who passionately began to cite his case for Elda to receive a city charter. Some of his words clearly hit home as, on August 24, this became  a reality for Elda. In the same year, the new city celebrated 300 years of the arrival of images of the patron saints and, to mark this and Elda’s newly-flourishing economy, two emblematic buildings were commissioned by the mayor – the Casino Eldense and the Castelar Theatre. Later, a third building went up for very different reasons – Elda had just acquired its first police force.

A century on, 2004 has seen both the 400-year celebrations of the Patron Saints’ images and the first hundred years of Elda’s city charter. Musical concerts, open-air theatre, folk dancing displays, cinema festivals, exhibitions, talks and courses on culture and history, book publications, the list of activities is far from exhaustive but has turned Elda into one of the Valencia Community’s most colourful, vibrant, vivacious towns this year. Buildings were artistically decorated and a new square was opened in honour of José Joaquín González, a mayor who so believed in his people that he was prepared to speak out for them in front of the most influential person in the land.

A series of awards have also been granted during the celebrations for residents who have made great contributions to the community. Most notable was professor Juan Madrona, who was made Adoptive Son of Elda for having worked tirelessly to maintain and promote the city’s culture – and, coincidentally, turned 100 this year. All residents aged 100 or more were also commemorated during the fiestas.
Elda’s current mayor, Juan Pascual Azorín, expressed his thanks to everyone who, over the course of the last century, ‘has made this city a lively, open, hard-working place with real solidarity amongst its people’, a city that owes its prospects to one proud mayor, and a chance encounter at the station.