The General Statistics Board of Spain maps of the Royal Site of San Ildefonso (Segovia), 1868-1869

Abstract

The survey of the Royal Site of San Ildefonso (Segovia) is one of the worst known mapping operations among those carried out by the General Statistics Board of Spain. However, stands out for the staff who took part in it, and also for the value of the cartographic documents, which remain unpublished. We provide a geohistorical description of the Royal Site and examine the decision to conduct the survey in an inappropriate political and economic situation, at the end of the regime of Isabel II. We analyze the field and cabinet works, and make a balance of the maps preserved in the archive of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

Key words: Royal Site of San Ildefonso, cartography, General Statistics Board of Spain.