Casilda Iturrizar Urquijo (1818-1900)
While born in Bilbao, she once lived in Portugalete. She married Tomás de Epalza y Zubaran, who founded the Santa Ana de Bolueta foundry in 1841 and the bank Banco de Bilbao in 1857.
When she was widowed, this modest, generous and magnanimous woman invested the money she had inherited to finance initiatives she was really passionate about: social protection, education and culture. This is how she funded many schools for girls, schools for children that lived in poverty or worked, scholarships for outstanding students from public schools, The Workers’ Board of San Vicente de Paul, Fernando Poo’s Religious Missions, the Casa de Misericordia or Mercy Home and the Public Hospital. Moreover, she was the principal stockholder of the Bilbo Choral Society, the anonymous New Theatre of Bilbao, which would later become the famous Arriaga Theatre, and the Catholic Teaching Anonymous Society, which would later become the University of Deusto.
In her will, she ordered her lands in Portugalete to build a building destined for children’s education called Doña Casilda de Iturrizar, managed by the Agustinian Fathers.
