Silo Viewpoint

The National Silo Network began to be planned in 1944 and its first units were strategically located taking into account the communication nodes and railroad lines. Tourist map of Almagro Their main objectives were to enable the purchase of the entire wheat harvest from farmers, to establish a national reserve to guarantee consumption, to allow the reception of imported wheat at the ports and also to facilitate export, and to ensure proper handling of the grain and the selection and treatment of seeds. Between 1945 and 1986, 663 silos and 275 granaries were built with a total capacity of 2,684,947 tons. Throughout this period, until 1984, the wheat sector operated under a state monopoly regime, and the other cereals were also subject to intervention prices which guaranteed their purchase by the State at that level. The end of the wheat monopoly regime first, and the subsequent entry of Spain into the European Union in 1986, led to a more limited intervention and a significant reduction in the use of silos. The Almagro silo was put into operation in 1968 and, of all the buildings erected in Almagro during the 20th century, it is undoubtedly the one with the strongest visual impact, at the same level as the large churches that are distributed throughout the town and far above the rest of the constructions. But in addition to its formidable material forcefulness, the mass of the silo is also remarkable because it represents and communicates certain symbolic values undoubtedly representative of the historical era in which it was erected. These values have to do with the economy, with state interventionism in the markets, not only in the wheat market, with politics, totalitarianism and the lack of freedom, even the most elementary freedom to buy and sell. For these reasons and for other merely technical ones, the silo is a very unversatile building, condemned to remain unused when the era to which it symbolizes and which gave it meaning ended; so that since it fell into disuse at the end of the 70s of the last century, it has remained for 40 years semi-abandoned and suffering the ravages of time. In 2017, the Almagro City Council considered what to do with it, how to adapt it to the new times so that it would be useful to citizens and without carrying out interventions that would disfigure it, since for better or worse, it has become part of the local landscape. In that year, the annex building was adapted as a multipurpose cultural space, the paintings of Antonio Laguna that cover the four facades of the tower and its lighting. In 2020 a new step was taken in the rehabilitation of the Almagro silo with access to the terrace, thus offering the possibility of enjoying a wonderful and unique view of our city.