Land surveyors in paradise: the topographical survey of the Royal Site of Riofrío (Spain), 1868-1869

Abstract

In August 1868 a team of surveyors from the General Statistics Board of Spain ("Junta General de Estadística"), led by José Giralt Torner, began field work needed to produce a reliable mapping of the Royal Site of Riofrío (Segovia, Spain). The survey was part of a more ambitious project, which aimed the inventory and demarcation of the Royal Heritage. Maps formed by the surveyors of the General Statistics Board, which are preserved in the archive of the National Geographic Institute, are an irreplaceable historical source, without possible comparison with the iconographic sources of the nineteenth century. This paper, which is based basically on primary sources, report on the preserved cartography, describes the survey system, and identify the protagonists of these works.