page_title: Luis Lezama Leguizamón Sagarminaga
section_title: Entrepreneur
hierarchical_section_title: Luis Lezama Leguizamón Sagarminaga / Entrepreneur
caption_attribution_description: Euskara: Ollargan meatzeak c 1890
context_page_description: Luis Dionisio de Lezama Leguizamón y Sagarminaga was a Spanish entrepreneur, vascologist and politician. As a businessman he kept developing the family-owned mining conglomerate, which controlled part or iron ore, carbon, fluorite, anhydrite and plaster exploitation in Vascongadas and Asturias. As a linguist he was a longtime executive of Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, owned one of the largest collections of Basque literature and contributed few scientific works himself. As a politician he supported the Traditionalist cause, first as a Carlist, in 1919-1931 as a breakaway Mellista, and then again as a Carlist; in the early 1930s he held the provincial party jefatura in Biscay.
context_section_description: With his brother Manuel, Luis was co-owner of Hijos de Lezama Leguizamón-Negocios de Minería, the company which owned the inherited business; it consisted of opencast iron ore mines in Etxebarri and Ollargan. Until the late 1890s the Lezamas were granted 5 more mining licenses and ranked as 6th most successful concessionaires in Biscay. At the turn of the centuries they attempted to restructure their mining portfolio; in 1895 the brothers sold Sociedad Coto Minero de Ollargan and in the early 1900s they received first anthracite mining concessions in Asturias. Apart from new licenses in Biscay, in the 1910s the Lezamas obtained further concessions in Asturias; along coal they covered also exploitation of fluorites, plaster and anhydrite deposits.
  One time or another the Lezamas operated some 15 mines in Biscay and Asturias; the jewel in the crown was "Abandonada", an iron ore opencast pit in Miribilla. Some mines were equipped with transportation systems or washeries which provided services to competitive companies; part of their infrastructure was so advanced that it gained scientific articles. It is estimated that the Lezama conglomerate accounted for some 5-6% of the Biscay iron ore production, and even during the wartime crisis it produced some 110-122 thousand tons. In the 1920s, when the Biscay mining was undergoing transformation and family-held companies were being replaced with bank ownership, the Lezamas held firm. For decades engaged in lawsuits against municipal authorities and subject to legal investigation as far as in Britain, during the Primo dictatorship they enjoyed favorable treatment.
  Lezama engaged in numerous other initiatives, mostly related to his mining business. In the 1890s he was among stakeholders of La Robla, a new railway line which linked Bilbao with León and Palencia; both regions provided coal, needed for the Biscay iron industry. In the 1910s he was involved in engineering projects related to regulation of the Nervion, vital for iron ore transportation and exploitation. In the early 20th century the Lezamas engaged financially in Banco de Bilbao; for decades Luis held a seat in its executive and in the late 1920s he was its rotating president; he stepped down from Consejo de Administración in the early 1930s. The Lezamas invested also in construction works in Canada, film-making industry in America and in photo business in Catalonia.
  The Lezama Leguizamóns are not counted among the very top elite of Biscay industrial tycoons, formed by the Ybarra, Martínez Rivas, Chávarri, Sota and Echevarrieta families; however, they are listed as members of the emergent Basque oligarchy; their name repeatedly comes up in history of Biscay industrialization and their companies are listed among the most important ones in Bilbao in the first decades of the 20th century. Their wealth and position was demonstrated by two buildings: Casa Lezama-Leguizamón in the downtown Bilbao, home to numerous corporate and other institutions, and Palacio Lezama-Leguizamón, the family residential estate in Getxo. Both are considered iconic examples of Biscay architecture, made possible by fortunes of the new industrial and financial oligarchy.
caption: Ollargan mine, 1890s
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