Central de San Tiburcio (Sunbilla)

The San Tiburcio power plant is located near Sunbilla, next to the water treatment plant, with access from the old national road heading north. The intake is on the Bidasoa river and from there the water is conveyed through a channel of more than three kilometers. The final part of this channel and the loading chamber, where the water is stored to keep it available for the production of electricity, are perfectly visible to the visitor, who has to climb the monumental staircase next to the powerhouse. It is a very low waterfall (17.2 meters) that needs a lot of flow, so the pipe is short and of large diameter.

This power plant was promoted by Compañía Eléctrica de Sumbilla to transport energy to Guipúzcoa and came into operation in 1955. The project is signed by the engineer José Manuel Górriz. Its more advanced chronology is manifested in the evolution towards a clean and simple architecture of rationalist character design . It is a building with a cubic volume in which, although there is a predominance of the wall surface, the interior is luminous thanks to two levels of openings, especially the five large vertical windows on the western façade. The straight vertical line prevails, accentuated by the projecting bands that unify the two levels of windows, something that is counteracted by the horizontality of the second level of windows and, above all, by the eaves. In the interior, which houses a group turbine-alternator, decoration is non-existent.