I should begin by stating that the history of pyrotechnics in Spain has yet to be written and that my only aim with these lines is to effect a brief "collage" with pieces taken from the few books on the history of fireworks that have been published in this country, linking it to the history of fireworks in Europe.

The invention of black gunpowder undoubtedly marked the beginning of the art of pyrotechnics. It was purely by chance that charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulphur were mixed. Some form of ignition would do the rest, unveiling to the world a new explosive material. The discovery has always been attributed to China or India, although both Arabs and Greeks claim their rights. Ever since its discovery, gunpowder has been applied to such diverse and contrasting fields as medicine, military defence and recreation.

Experts in Islamic culture have disseminated the theory that supports the introduction of gunpowder into the West through the routes of Arab penetration during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. This means that pyrotechnics would have reached the Iberian Peninsula through the Muslim world contributing, amongst others, such features as rockets, bangers, fire-crackers and coloured fire. Even though this is the most widely accepted theory, some researchers believe that it was the Croats who brought the knowledge of gunpowder to the West from China.

A further undeniable fact is that the research dedicated to warfare and military ends permitted the development of pyrotechnics, which by the 14^th century already had repercussions documented in festive activities. There are testimonies from those centuries referring to experiments and practices involving rockets. Roger Bacon, in England, wrote down the composition of gunpowder in code form. Jean Froissart, in France, discovered that the flight of rockets was more accurate and precise if they were launched from a pipe.

Also in the 15^th century, the city of Valencia specified areas within the urban limits where the manufacture and sale of fireworks was permitted. There is evidence of the existence of workshops and shops in the streets of Porta Nova and Trenc, to the point whereby the city of Valencia had to issue prohibitions that affected both activities.

Festive pyrotechnics made their appearance during the Renaissance in Europe, with Florence being the centre of this activity. Two differentiated schools emerged within the field of pyrotechnics. On the one hand, the Italian, based in Florence and Bologna, which laid stress on the manufacture of actual devices and, on the other, the German, based in Nuremberg, more concerned with chemical research. Whereas in the north, the fireworks were let off on their own, in the south the pieces decorated a vast architectural structure (the "machine"), which on the final night was lit up with fireworks. This may possibly have been the origin of the Spanish term "castillo" (castle), used to refer to a fireworks display. The "machines" survived, in more or less evolved forms, until well into the 20^th century.

Pyrotechnics made their way to America from Europe.

Likewise, in 16^th century Spain the public authorities decided to intervene in regulating pyrotechnics. King Charles V of Spain issued the first decrees that affected the guild of fireworks and pyrotechnics, differentiating them from artillerymen. These provisions came into force in the year 1532.

The firework display arranged in Venice to celebrate the Christian victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) has been considered the definitive consolidation of the technical development of pyrotechnics.

In 1585, a performance was staged in Dusseldorf of the play "Hercules Furens" by Seneca, in which the beasts Cerberus and Hydra spouted fireworks from their mouths and tails.

It was in the 17^th century that gunpowder reached Japan. Despite its geographical proximity to China, fireworks arrived there through Dutch and Portuguese traders. The gunpowder had travelled from the Far East to Western Europe and returned via Arabia.

The development of pyrotechnics in Valencia was greatly influenced by the Battle of Almansa (1707). In the city of Valencia there was an arms factory on the lands belonging to the park of La Cuidadela. The factory, which had also served to garrison troops, had produced muskets and large pistols as well as being a store for older weapons called culverins, because the barrel or iron cylinder was actually set into a traca, a snake-like fire-cracker.

Following the defeat of the anti-Bourbonic troops, King Phillip V ordered the factory to be dismantled. The craftsmen were forced to return to their villages of origin – Burjassot, Godella, Montcada, Paterna and Bétera, amongst others – and once more ply their trade as stonemasons and blacksmiths. The lust for pillage amongst the troops led them to burn the culverins or firecrackers. The wooden components were destroyed whilst the iron barrels were sold as scrap, eventually ending up once more in the hands of the factory’s former workers.

With peace prevailing, they decided to reintroduce the festive rituals. The barrels of the guns, of the firecrackers, were converted into festive items, which were loaded and fired by former workers from the factory. These were the first display mortars of known origin, and are still referred to in Valencia as a "Traca" (fire-cracker).

The increased popularity of the traca gave rise to a certain degree of professionalism. The stonemasons became traqueros (traca firers) during the festive celebrations held in local communities in Valencia. The huge demand required them to travel far afield from their villages.

In 1748, the Italian Ruggieri was commissioned by England’s King George II to produce a pyrotechnic display to commemorate the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was to provide the inspiration for the famous piece by the German composer George Friederic Handel "Music for the Royal Fireworks". In spite of the fact that the King in person inspected the colossal wooden structure designed for the event, the spectacle did not go according to plan and part of it went up in flames. The chronicles of the time explain that the aerial fireworks performed well, but not so the wheels and fixed structures.

In the 19^th century, there was a chemical evolution that affected pyrotechnics, which permitted the diversification of colours in fireworks. The silver and golden hues used until then were extended, at the hands of the French chemist, Berthollet, who discovered potassium chlorate, to include all the other colours available today. At the same time, with the availability of picric acid, the first "whistling" effects were forthcoming. The subsequent discovery of magnesium (1865) and of aluminium (1894) gave fireworks an unprecedented brilliance. France also provided the invention of the shell, the most widely use component in pyrotechnics today.

The outbreak of the French Revolution ensured that fireworks were once again embraced by the entire spectrum of the social classes. On the one hand, they ceased to be the exclusive domain of courtiers and royalty and, on the other, they were freed from the restricted enclosures where payment was required, becoming a public spectacle for popular consumption. The influence of French trends, linked to the Enlightenment and to the quest for intellectual, scientific and economic progress was warmly received in the city of Valencia, which was home to one of the more numerous French communities in Spain. In fact, the traqueros who launched fireworks on the quayside in Grau were in direct contact with the French living in the area.

At the beginning of the 19^th century, the war put an end to contact between the Spanish and French. When it ended in 1814, Spain’s Bourbon authorities did not want the traqueros to launch firecrackers. Valencia decreed bans and punishments upon those who did so. A divergence arose between the city of Valencia and the rest. In the provincial capital itself, the authorities oversaw the organisation of the festive celebrations, whereas in other parts the ritual itself prevailed over officialdom. Indeed, it was a period of enormous expansion and development for pyrotechnics, which throughout the 19^th century would become a defining characteristic of the people of Valencia.

It might be affirmed that there are two different ways of addressing firework displays on the Iberian Peninsula.

Galicia, the north of Spain and the north of Portugal; where the most sophisticated rockets are manufactured. The largest (cohetón in Spanish and foguetöes in Portuguese) are powered by means of two motors attached to a bamboo stick of four metres in length and can lift up to one kilo of stars to a great height. Unfortunately, the enormous cost of the labour, the stringent safety rules and the availability of shells from other parts of Spain and abroad have meant that the use of this device in firework displays has been significantly reduced.

On the Mediterranean coast; Valencia and Catalonia are home to some of the largest manufacturers of fireworks of different types and effects.

In the 20^th century, firework displays were provided for large concentrations of people. This led to the gradual disappearance of ground or fixed devices, being replaced by aerial fireworks. Globalisation has also influenced the world of pyrotechnics, whereby the major producers such as China and, lagging some way behind, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Japan, have dominated the international market, with the ensuing closure of small workshops and the disappearance of local specialities. The design of displays, formerly in the hands of the manufacturers, has been taken away from the factories and numerous companies have emerged that merely select the products on the market and then combine them in response to their own particular way of understanding the spectacle.

I should like to conclude by mentioning some of the firework displays throughout the length and breadth of Spain, as an example of the deep roots that the art of pyrotechnics has set down in this country.

Each year, at Corpus Christi, the town of Berga celebrates La Patum. Over the centuries, Berga has jealously protected the veritable historical document that is La Patum. The ritual, which is performed annually in the tiny square of Sant Pere, transforms Berga into a chaotic mass of men, fire, music and dance; a perfect symbiosis that only the true patumaires know how to experience to the full and which becomes the symbol that defines and characterises the entire community.
(www.ajberga.es)

The great day for Dalías is the third Sunday of September, when the procession of the Santo Cristo de la Luz is held. At both the start and end of the procession, tens of thousands of rockets are fired off in honour of the Santo.

In the second week of August, Elche celebrates its festivals in honour of its patron, La Virgen de la Asunción. The festivity of La Nit de l’Albà has its origins in the 15^th – 16^th century, when it was the custom to fire one rocket for each child from the balconies of the houses, as an offering to the Madonna. Five minutes before midnight, all the lights are turned out in Elche ready to witness the explosion of the "Palmera de la Virgen" which the local council fires from the Basílica de Santa María, together with over 300 palm-trees and 60,000 rockets that are distributed throughout the city and which transform the heavens into a explosion of light and colour.
(www.elche.com)

In the early hours following the last Sunday in August, the day celebrating the Santísimo Cristo de la Fe and San Vicente Ferrer.

In the main street, the Calle Mayor, crates are laid out full of coets and femelletes, of different kinds and models, in stretches of 120 metres in length by 8 in width. Three people stand beside each crate. The passing of the Coeter Major with the green flare signals the start, so that together with the slow firecracker of femelletes and coetons, which go off in succession, around 25,000 rockets are set off at an average launch rate of around 1,500 rockets per minute.
(www.ayto-paterna.es)

At midday on 24 July, the cathedral bells ring out to herald the events of the coming night. Obradorio Square is filled with colour and light in a spectacle where fireworks, light and sound transport the spectator into a magical world.

Valencia celebrates its grand festival of fire and gunpowder, which has been prepared throughout the entire year.

Towards the middle of the 18^th century, the fallas were no more than a simple festivity included in the schedule of events that were typical of the festival of San José (19 March). At dawn on the 18^th some of the city’s streets were adorned with straw dolls hanging over the middle of the way on wires running from one window to another or by small scenic representations placed beside the walls and upon which, exposed to public shame, were one or two dolls (ninots) alluding to some reprehensible event, conduct or character. During the day children and youths collected material for burning and prepared small bonfires of junk that were also referred to as fallas. Each one was set alight at nightfall on the eve of San José, with large crowds gathering round the fire. The following day was a half-holiday and both carpenters and the devout people of Valencia attended their parish churches to worship their patron.

The first documented record of the fallas is an official letter sent to the prevailing authority, the corregidor, of the city of Valencia with a request for a ban on the placing of these figures (especially those of a theatrical nature) in the narrow streets and besides the facades of the houses. As a result of these measures of urban policing (prevention of fires) the local people were required to set up the fallas in wide avenues, at street crossings and in squares.

Throughout the whole of the 19^th century the Local Council and, in general, the bodies of authority, maintained a vigilant and critical approach to the fallas. This repressive policy, justified by the need to modernise and civilise the city’s customs, was aimed at doing away with popular festivals. (Carnival and Fallas, amongst others), and was notched up a gear during the seventies by the imposition of heavy taxes on the licence for setting up fallas or playing music. This pressure gave rise, as a reaction, to a movement in defence of typical traditions and in 1887, for the first time, the magazine La Traca awarded prizes to the best fallas.

In 1927, the association for the development of tourism, Valencia Atracción, organised the first Tren Fallero. The event was so successful that the whole of Valencian society took an even greater interest in the fallas, considerably increasing the number of figures that were erected. It was in these years that Las Fallas truly became the grand festival of the people of Valencia.
(www.fallas.com)

Aguirre Franco, Rafael

"Los fuegos artificiales. El festival de San Sebastián". Fundación Cruzcampo, 1998

Bertran Luengo, Jordi

"Untitled". To be published soon.

Goñi Urcelay, Felix Mª

"Fuegos artificiales en Euskalherria : pirotecnia y pirotécnicos". Ediciones Laga, 1999

Lancaster, Ronald

"Fireworks. Principles and Practice" (3^rd Ed.) Chemical Publishing Co., New York, 1998