Numa Guilhou

Jean Antoine Numa Guilhou was a French businessman born in the town of Mazamet. From a young age, he worked in the family wool trade business but developed most of his professional life in Asturias, becoming one of the key figures of the Industrial Revolution in the region.

Biography

His industrial activity in Asturias began in 1857 when he purchased the Compagnie Minière et Métallurgique des Asturies, established on June 25, 1853, in Paris as the successor to the English-capital Asturian Mining Company. The company, controlled by the Riánsares group and managed by Grimaldi and Lillo, owned the Mieres foundry and several mining operations. This transformed the region from a predominantly agricultural and livestock-based economy into one of Spain's main industrial centers, driving significant political and social change.

In 1861, he founded the company Houillere et Metallurgique des Asturies with a capital of 8 million francs. This new company resulted from the merger of the Compagnie Minière et Métallurgique des Asturies with the steel factory of Villallana and the mines in Langreo, purchased from the Duke of Riánsares for 10,450,000 reales.

Due to logistical and communication problems, the business group failed and was liquidated through a public auction in Paris in 1870.

Numa Guilhou returned to his residence in Mieres to personally manage the factory. In 1873, he hired Catalan engineer Jerónimo Ibrán, who modernized the facilities, created new workshops, and prioritized technical and professional training for the workers. By the time of Numa Guilhou's death, twenty years later, the factory had become one of Asturias' main industrial centers, fueled in part by the demand for iron for constructing the Lena-Gijón railway, inaugurated in 1874. His industrial activity decreased during the Carlist War in the Basque Country.

Numa Guilhou passed away in El Padrún, a parish of Rebollada, and was buried in a small abandoned Protestant cemetery in La Rebollada, which is currently being restored by the Santa Bárbara Association.

Numa Guilhou married Anne Zélie Singher, with whom he had one son, Ernesto. Ernesto later married Henriette Georgeault, known socially in Asturias as Enriqueta de Guilhou. They had two daughters: Jacqueline (known as Jacoba), who became the Marchioness of Villaviciosa de Asturias through her marriage to Pedro Pidal y Bernaldo de Quirós, and Marthe (known as Marta), who first married Ricardo Heredia, Count of Benahavís, and later Manuel Loring, Count of Mieres del Camino. Marta's tomb is located inside the church of Santa María Magdalena in La Rebollada. Numa also had two sons, Jean Pierre and Ernest, from a previous marriage.

In Luxembourg, he was one of the founders of the Grand Ducal Railway Company Guillaume-Luxembourg, established on January 6, 1857.

In recognition of his industrial contributions to Asturias, several streets in towns such as Mieres and Gijón have been named after him.

External links

• Ramón Martínez Vigil, O.P. (1840-1904), Bishop of Oviedo