Mondragón ( eu, Arrasate or ''Mondragoe''), officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French de ...

Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933.

Economic and historical significance

The town is best known as the birthplace of the

Mondragon Corporation The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragon in 1956 by José María Arizmendiarrieta and a group of his students at a technic ...

, the world's largest worker cooperative, whose foundation was inspired in the 1940s by the Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta. In 2002 the MCC contributed 3.7% to the total GDP of the Basque Country and 7.6% to the industrial GDP. The valley of the High Deba where the town is located enjoyed a high level of employment in the 1980s while the rest of the Basque industrial areas suffered from the steel crisis. Noted poverty expert and sociology professor Barbara J. Peters of Stony Brook Southampton has studied the incorporated and entirely resident-owned town of Mondragón. "In Mondragón, I saw no signs of poverty. I saw no signs of extreme wealth," Peters said. "I saw people looking out for each other…. It's a caring form of capitalism." The spa at Santa Águeda (now a psychiatric hospital) was the location of the 1897 murder of Spanish

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalis ...

politician

Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (8 February 18288 August 1897) was a Spanish politician and historian known principally for serving six terms as Prime Minister and his overarching role as "architect" of the regime that ensued with the 1874 restor ...

by Michele Angiolillo.

Mondragón University

Mondragón serves as base of Mondragón University, a private university created in 1997, that is connected with the MCC companies. Almost all of the university's graduates find their first job within three months after completing their studies due to this strong link. Mondragón University is divided into engineering, humanities, and enterprise faculties. The faculty of engineering is in Mondragon and

Goierri Goierri ("Highland(s)" in Basque; es, Goyerri) or "Basque Highlands" is one of the eight '' comarcas'' (''Eskualdea'' in the Basque language) in the Spanish province of Gipuzkoa. It is composed of 18 municipalities, Beasain, Ordizia and Lazkao ...

. The humanities faculty is in

Eskoriatza , population_note = , population_density_km2 = auto , blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s) , blank_info_sec1 = BasqueSpanish , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and the enterprise faculty is in

Bidasoa __NOTOC__ The Bidasoa (, ; french: Bidassoa, ) is a river in the Basque Country of northern Spain and southern France that runs largely south to north. Named as such downstream of the village of Oronoz-Mugairi (municipality of Baztan) in the p ...

and Oñati. The student enrollment is approximately 3,500 and is rapidly growing. The majority of the students are from

and surrounding villages, although in the last few years, the number of students from

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the ...

, and the Basque Country capital,

Vitoria-Gasteiz Vitoria-Gasteiz (; ), also alternatively spelled as Vittoria in old English-language sources, is the seat of government and the capital city of the Basque Country and of the province of Álava in northern Spain. It holds the autonomous community' ...

, has increased significantly.

In film

Pierre Boutron's

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

film ''Fiesta!'', adapted from a novel written by

José Luis de Vilallonga José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...

, was set in Mondragón during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

Archaeology

Excavating at the Artazu VII site located in the Kobate Quarry in Arrasate.

References

External links

General information of Arrasate/Mondragón
(Spanish)
Pictures of Arrasate/Mondragón in FLICKRMunicipality pages in Basque and SpanishMondragon University homepageARRASATE/MONDRAGÓN in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa)
Information available in Spanish {{DEFAULTSORT:Mondragon Municipalities in Gipuzkoa