page_title: Joaquín Bau Nolla
section_title: Mayor
hierarchical_section_title: Joaquín Bau Nolla / Mayor
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Straßenbrücke in Tortosa, die das westliche Ufer (links) mit dem östlichen Ufer des Ebro verbindet (25. Juni 2002).
context_page_description: Joaquín Bau Nolla was a Spanish Carlist and Francoist politician.
context_section_description: Though Joaquín's paternal grandfather was a Liberal his father was already reported as Traditionalist and it was in his footsteps that Joaquín followed. As a youngster and teenager Bau engaged in local Traditionalist juvenile organisations. He became head of the Tortosa section of Requeté, a formation established in 1909 as a sporting and outdoor grouping for the Carlist youth. He seemed particularly fond of social and charity initiatives, organising Christmas for the poor, working in Patronato Escolar Obrero de la Sagrada Familia and co-founding Sindicatos Católicos Obreros. In the early 1920s he already emerged as a dynamic local politician. Once Primo de Rivera replaced the liberal restauración with dictatorship, Bau enthusiastically engaged in the nascent primoderiverista structures; in 1924 he co-founded the Tortosa branch of Unión Patriótica and became its jefe provincial.
  During the period called "Bauisme" in the history of Tortosa, in 1925 Bau was unanimously elected mayor of the city, re-elected in 1928 and holding the post until 1930. His contribution was multifold; during 5 years the Bau-led ayuntamiento executed the plan of public works, consisting of modernization of city streets, refurbishment of public schools and hospitals and setting up regular fire brigade services. He inaugurated Instituto Nacional de Segunda Ensenanza and Escuela de Trabajo, expanded local railway line and enhanced the county road network. Much of his activity was about tackling Ebro-related issues, like floods, navigation, bridges or land re-cultivation. Largely successful and sort of celebrated by Alfonso de Borbón and the dictator as one of the youngest mayors, he nevertheless failed in his attempt to elevate Tortosa - since 1833 part of the Tarragona province - to the provincial capital range, the new unit to be carved out from these of Tarragona, Castellón and Teruel.
  Though dictatorship was initially welcomed by the Carlists as a stepping stone towards a Traditionalist monarchy, in 1925 the claimant Don Jaime switched to opposition. Bau decided not to follow suit and went on contributing to the regime; in literature he is usually listed along Victor Pradera and Esteban Bilbao as one of those Carlists who abandoned their king and joined the primoderiverista version of the Alfonsine monarchy. In 1927 he was appointed to the quasi-parliament, Asamblea Nacional Consultiva, standing as representative of Organizaciones provinciales de Unión Patriótica and representative of the Ayuntamientos; in the chamber he became one of the youngest members. He kept supporting the dictator by staging welcome celebrations in Tortosa and organizing manifestations of tortosinos in Madrid in 1928. In 1929 Bau was re-elected jefe of the local Unión Patriótica, engaged in Somatén, animated the youth branch named Juventud Patriótica and until 1930s financed a local Tortosa periodical, Unión Patriótica. He is deemed responsible for 1929 expulsion from the city of Marcelino Domingo, at that time a Republican activist in serious health condition.
caption: Ebro in Tortosa
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