Un Geòmetra francès a Espanya: Jean-Antoine Laur (1850-1860)

Abstract

The implantation of the Land Tax, Contribución de Inmuebles, cultivo y ganadería, in 1845 produced in several parts of Spain a numerous and diverse cadastral cartography. Only in the province of Barcelona have been catalogued 140 different cartographical cadastral documents (atlases and plans) elaborated between 1849 and 1883. The production of this cartography and the new perspectives opened by the Spanish liberal reformists at the end of the 1850 decade in order to make up a general cadastre attracted to Spain several foreigners land surveyors. This article is dedicated to analyze the professional trajectory in Catalonia and Madrid of one of these land surveyors: the French Jean-Antoine Laur. Laur, that was chief of the French cadastre, worked making up several cadastral maps of the province of Barcelona and collaborated with the Spanish Statistical Board in the design of the one general cadastre of Spain.