Issue date: 20 Jul, 2006
This year’s Centenaries issue is made up of two stamps commemorating the VII Anniversary of the Benavides market in Orbigo (León) and the Hundred Anniversary of the water canal of Aragon and Cataluña. The first stamp depicts the logo of the 7th anniversary, featuring the porch of the town’s main square whilst the second stamp depicts a view of the sifon del Sosa (Sosa Siphon).
It was back in 1306, on the 28th August when king Fernando IV, awarded his vassal, Juan Alfonso de Benavides, lord of the Villa de Benavides de Orbigo, the privilege of holding a free market on Thursdays. From then onwards, and during the past seven centuries, this market has been going on every week in the arcade of the Plaza Mayor (main square). The Mercado de los Jueves (Thursday market) as is commonly known, has been an incentive and impulse for the economic and social development of Benavides and the surrounding towns of the strand of the Orbigo river. Villages such as Carrizo de Ribera, Cimanes del Tejar, Hospital de Orbigo, Llamas de la Ribera, Santa Marina del Rey, Turcia, Villarejo and Villares de Orbigo have benefited from the commercial growth that during these past 700 years has brought along the Thrusday market of Benavides.
On March 2nd of 1906, began to work the water canal of Aragon and Cataluña. Its construction has been vital for the development of agriculture, cattle breeding and industry in a large area of irrigated land in the regions of Huesca and Lleida. Although the project began with king Carlos V, it was by a royal decree of 17th November 1876 issued by Alfonso XII when it was given the name of Canal de Aragón y Cataluña. After years of delay, the State took over the building works in 1896. It was inaugurated in 1906 by king Alfonso XIII, with the waters passing through the twin pipelines of the Sosa siphon. The canal was then 70 Km long. The Perera aqueduct was also built at that time and the Comunidad de Regantes (association of farmers who water their crops with water from the canal) was formed. In 1970 was inaugurated the Enlace canal that linked the waters of the Esera and the Noguera rivers in Coll de Foix. Nowadays the canal has a length of 124 km, plus de 47 km of the Zaidin canal, the 6 km of the Enlace canal, and the 78 km of the thirteen irrigation ditches derived from the Principal canal.
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