| Extra info | In 1919 Carlos Quero Goldini , Marquis consort of Mota de Trejo and engineer of Caminos Canales y Puertos, launched the Cordobesa Frigorificia, which was located on Fray Luis de Granada Street. The marquis already has a bourgeois mentality and finds a niche in the market in the manufacture of ice.
It will be in the fall of 1920 when the production of beer under the La Mezquita brand begins. The trademark was registered in 1921. The brewery, which had its own malthouse, was built adjacent to the ice factory and offered the Munich and Pilsen varieties. It had a German brewer, probably Justo Lichorn, and that its consumption was advised to prevent the flu. In 1924 the press informed us that the administrative staff of the company were Carlos Villanueva, Justo Eichchon (sic) and José Górriz. The Mosque was sold, at least, in Cordoba, Extremadura and Almería.
In 1925, an article published by the Andalucía Industrial magazine tells us that production was 36,000 liters of beer and 35,000 kilos of ice. However, these figures seem low, since that same year the representative of the factory in Extremadura, Edmundo Cordero, claimed to sell 80,000 liters of La Mezquita in barrels and 64,000 in bottles.
On December 31, 1927, the transformation of the company into SA was announced. The new company remains under the control of the Central Bank. Antonio Gordón will be the new manager of the company and Justo Lichorn continues to work there. The president becomes Pedro Martínez Gutiérrez, director of the Central Bank. The marquis disappears from the Shareholders' Meeting and the company's share capital amounts to 3 million pesetas. Despite the change, Edmundo Cordero remains the representative in Cáceres and Badajoz.
In September 1932 a strike paralyzed production, on November 11 there were 7 dismissals, although they had to be reinstated on the 16th of the same month. The labor conflict had dire consequences for the fifty workers. On December 8 of that year, the board of directors announced the closure of the factory, citing losses in the balance sheets of the last few years, and the dismissal of its employees was announced. The factory was closed, but the Central Bank restarted it in 1934. Its machinery was renewed and its fermentation capacity was expanded to 200,000 liters and storage capacity to 600,000 liters. Daily production reached 18,000 liters and about 24,000 bottles were bottled per day. In total, annual production expected to reach 3,500,000 liters. The new manager will be Fernando Monserrat.
The factory maintained its production during the Civil War, its advertising frequently appearing in the Cordoban newspaper Falangista Azul. In addition, an air raid shelter was installed inside.
After the Civil War in 1940 it was bought by El Águila, which stopped producing in Córdoba with the La Mezquita brand to use its own. In 1992 El Águila sold the Córdoba plant to the Colombian Baviera and formed the company "Compañía Andaluzas de Cerveza SA", which in 1999 changed hands again, passing to La Alhambra.
In December 2002 , the "new" La Mezquita beer was presented, already within La Alhambra of the Mahou-San Miguel strategy. The objectives were to maintain the productive activity of the Córdoba factory, offer a high-end product with personality and identify the brand with the city of the caliphs. |
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