Gargantua is a in the history of literature. He was said to stand up to 1,000 feet tall, and the tales about him were wildly popular in 16th century France. It was written that the giant started eating and drinking the moment he was born, and he was almost always hungry from that moment on. Gargantua was ordinarily a peaceful giant, but had a temper that led to bad behavior or sometimes even ended with the deaths of people who angered him.
Overview[]
Though Gargantua was greedy when it came to food, he wasn't a mean giant, and kept a peaceful attitude toward the people around him. Some other people, however, felt threatened. After an argument over a big load of cakes, a king sent a group of bakers to attack the town where Gargantua lived. The weeks of fighting that followed annoyed the giant so much that he uprooted a huge tree and used it to smash the king's castle to pieces to put an end to the battle. The king's army shot hundreds of cannonballs at Gargantua, but he swatted them away
History[]
Gargantua was the son of two giants, called Grandgoussier and Gagamelle, daughter of a wild king. The son, at birth, came out of his mother's left ear, was the size of a calf and weighed several tons. They had to build him a huge crib. To eat they gave him heaps of calves and cows. In the end, his parents, instead of using a cart, decided to take him on a cart pulled by oxen. In 1854, the first Gargantua was created in Bilbao, the work of Bombero Echániz. This first Gargantua was destroyed in 1874 by a bomb during the Carlist War.
A few years later, specifically in 1896, the second Gargantua appears, with new clothing since the previous one dressed in the French style, a style that will last to this day. It is created in Achuri (Bilbao) by Higinio Basterra in the Basterra-Larrea workshops, with a cost of 2,278.85 pesetas at the time. He disappeared from Bilbao's festive programs around 1907, when, according to some documents from the time, the town council of Guernica (Vizcaya) acquired him and the giants and big heads of the town.
The third Gargantúa was presented along with the new Gigantes and Cabezudos, thanks especially to Radio Bilbao, in 1934. Like the previous Gargantúa, this one was also built in Atxuri. There is evidence that in 1939, coinciding with the fact that the dictator Franco was interested in meeting the Bilbao giant, it was restored. In 1950 it made its last appearance in the Bilbao festival programmes, being abandoned in some workshops in Deusto, where rats lived.
We had to wait 12 years to see Gargantua walk through the streets of the town again. Once again Radio Bilbao takes the lead, and once again orders the construction (with the support of the people of Bilbao) of a new Gargantua and another series of Giants and Bigheads. It is built in workshops in Bolueta (Bilbao) by Tomás Martínez de Arteaga and José Luis Teresa, at a cost of 500,000 pesetas. It was presented in 1962 in a massive parade along Bilbao's Gran Via.
The Gargantua was lost until 1978 (first edition of the Aste Nagusia) when there was news of it. Given the lack of Giants and Bigheads, the Bilbao city council asks the Vitoria city council for the giants, at the same time as the Gargantua due to the poor state in which the Bilbao glutton of 1962 is found. In the Gaceta del Norte of August 19, 1978 you can read "The villagers arrived safely (referring to the Vitorian giants). They were unloaded around three in the afternoon at the Flammable Materials service, the town hall location where the remains of the old Gargantua of Bilbao were left, a mess." The restoration of Gargantúa is put in the hands of Pedro Goiriena in the legua comedians' workshop, ready for Aste Nagusia 1979, with a final cost of 400,000 pesetas, of which the Vizcaína Savings Bank is responsible. He is one of the gargantuas that is still present at the botxo festivals.
In 1986, Pedro Goiriena built a Gargantua in Sopuerta (Vizcaya), with a price of 4,400,000 pesetas, which would make a fleeting appearance in Bilbao. He would only be present in the town at the festivities of that same year. Due to different problems (the mouth of this new Gargantua was too small) the Gargantua is moved to the place where it was created to carry out the necessary renovations. In Pedro Goiriena's own hamlet, a fire leaves this new Gargantua unusable.
In 1988, the city council again commissioned another Gargantua. This time Vicente Luna takes charge in his workshop in Valencia, with a total cost of 3,600,000 pesetas. This new Gargantua is not well received by the public due to its friendly appearance and cartoonish profile, in addition to details such as the fact that it does not close its mouth as the previous Gargantua did. Despite this, he is the usual Gargantua in Aste Nagusia.