Grand Prix del Verano 2002

Spanish Domestic Series

Presenter / Commentator:
Ramón García

Co-Presenter:
Oihana Etxeberría

Referees:
Almudena Fernández
Roberto Gil
Raúl Rubio
Diego Serrano

Team Helpers:
Manuel Fonseca
Héctor del Moral

Music:
Danilo Vaona

Dancers:
Kateryna Borohk
Susana Cores
Mónica Corrales
Susana Costales
Gema González
Elena de Miguel
Ana Isabel Peralta
Noemí Ramal

Production Credits:

Creator: Francesco Boserman

Produced by: Europroducciones TV for Televisión Española (TVE - E)

E

Grand Prix del Verano 2002

Heat 1

Event Staged: Summer 2002
Venue: Estudio L-3 (Studio L-3), Estudios Buñuel (Buñuel Studios),
Avenida de Burgos, Chamartín, Madrid, Spain

European Transmissions (Local Timings):
TVE La 1 (E): Monday 15th July 2002

Audience Figures:
TVE La 1 (E): 3,484,000 viewers / 29.4% share

Teams: Autol (La Rioja) v. Torrequemada (Cáceres)

Team Members included:
Autol (La Rioja) - Sara Baras (Team Patron);
Torrequemada (Cáceres) - Miriam Díaz Aroca (Team Patron).

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

1st
2nd

 Torrequemada (Cáceres) ●
 Autol (La Rioja)

25
23

The Host Town

Madrid, Spain

Madrid is the capital city of Spain with a permanent population of around 3.3 million inhabitants, which makes it the second most populous city in the European Union, surpassed only by Berlin in Germany, and the largest in Spain. It is both the capital city of the Comunidad de Madrid (Community of Madrid) and of the country of Spain, and is the seat of government, the residence of the Spanish monarch, and is recognised as the political, economic and cultural centre of the country. It is located 302.4km (187.9 miles) north-west of Valencia, 391.3km (243.1 miles) north east of Sevilla, 274.2km (170.3 miles) south west of Zaragoza and 176.1km (109.4 miles) south east of Salamanca. Madrid is situated on the southern Meseta Central plateau, 60km south of the Guadarrama mountain range and straddles the Jarama and Manzanares river sub-drainage basins, in the wider Tagus River catchment area.

The Madrid area has been settled since the Stone Age and signs remains of Lower Paleolithic  human habitation, as well as Roman, Visigoth and Muslim civilisations. Numerous ancient objects have been uncovered in excavations along the banks of the River Manzanares, such as axes and the remains of large mammals.

Originally named Mayrit, the city of Madrid was founded by the emir Muhammad I of Córdoba towards the end of the ninth century and came to prominence during the Arab occupation of the Iberian peninsula. The Emir built a fortress on a headland near the river Manzanares, one of many built on the border between Al-Andalus and the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, his objectives being to protect the Toledo region from Christian invasion and also to establish a base for Muslim offensives.

After the defeat of Toledo to Alfonso VI of Leon, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085 during the Reconquista (Reconquest of Spain), becoming a Crown property of the kingdom of Castile. Following the conquest, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs and all prevalent symbols of Muslim influence and rule were removed. However, the events of this period produced a cultural melting pot which still characterises the city today.

The 1123 Charter of Otorgamiento established the first explicit limits between Madrid and Segovia, namely the Puerto de El Berrueco and the Puerto de Lozoya, and in 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile. In 1329, King Fernando V assembled the famed Court of Madrid for the first time. This augured in one of the darker periods in Spanish history, namely the Spanish Inquisition. In the 14th and 15th centuries, in the wake of the Reconquista, Moors and Jews banded together and formed a concentrated population in Madrid – named Moreria to this day. In 1494 they were all denounced as “unbelievers” and expelled from Spain. Mosques and other Muslim imagery once again disappeared from the area.

However it was not until the 16th century that Madrid became Spain's capital city. King Felipe II moved the Imperial Court to Madrid in 1561, and from this time Madrid was now the kingdom's capital, apart from the brief years between 1601 and 1606 when Felipe III installed his court in Valladolid.

Madrid enjoyed significant changes during the 18th century, when city gates, bridges and new buildings gave it a new appearance. The Royal Palace (also called the Eastern Palace - Palacio de Oriente, standing next to the large Plaza de Oriente square) was constructed on the site of the ruins of the Alcazar or old Moorish Castle which had been destroyed by fire in 1734. After 1738 Juan B. Sachetti directed the construction work on the Palace, helped out to some extent by Ventura Rodríguez and developing on original plans made by Juavera. The work on the Royal Palace was completed during the reign of Carlos III (1759-1788), as was the construction of the city gates, the Royal Theatre, the building that now houses the Ministry of Finance (Hacienda), the Natural Science Museum, the Botanical Gardens and the temple of San Francisco El Grande, amongst others. Also, the Retiro Park was significantly improved and several new buildings built: Casa de Cisneros, the General Hospital, the College of San Carlos, the Royal Mint, Casa de los Geranios and the fountains of Cibeles, Neptune and Apollo.

On 27th October 1807, Charles IV and Napoleon I signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which permitted French troops to pass through Spanish territory to join the Spanish troops and invade Portugal, which had defied an international blockade against England. As this was happening, there was the Mutiny of Aranjuez (17th March 1808), by which the crown prince, Ferdinand VII, replaced his father as king. However, Joachim-Napoléon Murat, a Marshal of the French Empire, took advantage of the weakness of the Spanish Bourbons, and forced both father and son, to join him in Bayonne in late April. In the absence of the two kings, the situation became more and more tense in Madrid. On 2nd May, a crowd gathered at the Royal Palace and set upon the French soldiers there. The fight lasted for many hours and spread throughout Madrid. The subsequent repression by the French was brutal. In the Paseo del Prado and in the fields of La Moncloa hundreds of patriots were shot due to Murat's order against "All Spaniards carrying arms". Paintings such as The Third of May 1808 by Goya reflect the repression that ended the popular uprising on 2nd May. This proved to be the beginning of the War of Independence, a large-scale war in which the Spanish fought against Napoleon and their former allies in France, which has given rise to a number of patriotic memorials in the city of Madrid. The Plaza Dos de Mayo is the most famous of these. In 1835, the world-famous University of Alcala de Henares was transferred to Madrid. The Faculty of Science was added to it, and the academy became the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Madrid was held by forces loyal to the Spanish Republic. Following the advance towards Madrid of rebel land troops, the first air bombings on the city started on the night of the 27th-28th August 1936, leaving it with the dubious honour of being the first major European city to be bombed by aviation. The summer and autumn of 1936 saw the Republican Madrid witness heavy-handed repression by Communist and Socialist groups, symbolised by the horrific Paracuellos massacres during a major rebel offensive against the city, which was halted by early December. Even towards the end of the war, Madrid witnessed great suffering and even a minor civil war that accounted for roughly 2,000 lives between 5th and 10th March 1939. The city fell to the nationalists on 28th March 1939 and, following the onset of the Françoist dictatorship in the city, the absence of freedoms and the brutal repression of those linked to a republican past greatly affected life in the city. There was a climate of general shortage, with ration coupons rampant and a lingering autocratic economy which lasted until the mid-1950s.

After centuries of historical tumult, Madrid has made tremendous urban progress in recent years. It is considered one of Europe’s most progressive, modern and beautiful cities. It has a vibrant local arts culture and boisterous nightlife, along with constant reminders of the city’s rich history. It is deservedly renowned as one of the continent’s most favoured tourist destinations.

The Venue

Estudios Buñuel (Buñuel Studios)

The games were played inside Studio L-3 at the RTVE's Estudios Buñuel (Buñuel Studios). The studio facility stood on the site of the famous Estudios de Chamartín, a film studio complex on Avenida De Burgos in Chamartín de la Rosa, Madrid. Construction work commenced in 1935, working to designs by the notable modernist architect Rafael Bergamín, but works were ceased during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Once the conflict was over, the construction was completed, with the studios being officially inaugurated on 17th April 1941. It was the third largest film studio in Madrid after those of CEA and Sevilla Films and employed 255 people.

The studio came to real prominence in the 1950s when it started to regularly host the production of high profile international films in its studios and outdoor spaces for standing sets. The first such co-production filmed there was Captain Blackjack in 1950. By 1955 and the film La Gata, the studio was equipped to make CinemaScope films. Consequently, the studio was subsequently used for blockbusters like El Cid (1961) and 55 Days at Peking (1963). Following the end of principal photography on the latter film in 1962 the Chamartín complex was purchased by film mogul D. Samuel Bronston, who reputedly paid the princely sum of 80 million pesetas to close the deal and changed the studio name to Bronston Studios. However, by the mid-1960s, the bubble burst for Bronston and his company - Bronston Española, S.A. - when the blockbuster The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) proved to be an over-expensive flop at the box office. The company collapsed, but the studios survived this shock to fight another day, finally closing in 1984.

After many years laying dormant, the site was purchased by Radio and Televisión Española (RTVE), who redeveloped and renovated the old Chamartín complex, reopening it on 12th September 1988 as Estudios Buñuel, a three-studio modern television production facility. Studios L-1 and L-2 each had a ground space of 600m², while L-3 was at the time of construction the largest in Europe at 2,500m².

Many popular Spanish television programmes were made at the studios. One of the first of these was Con las manos en la masa (Red-Handed) and in 1992 it was where a major production of El Quijote (Don Quixote) was made. It was well-established by the time Grand Prix del Verano was recorded there between 2002 and 2005.

The studios were closed in November 2014 after TVE sold the Estudios Buñuel complex to real estate company Pryconsa for 35.27 million euros. TVE's decision to sell the studios was the result of a sustainability study that recommended their productions all moved under one roof at their Prado del Rey studios in another part of Madrid. The Buñuel Studios buildings were demolished in 2015 and the site is now given over to newly-built luxury apartments.

Made in Colour • This programme may exist in Spanish Archives

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