Juan José Tomás Ramón María Melitón Santiago Olazábal Ramery was born to a very distinguished Gipuzkoan dynasty,[1] much branched and intermarried with a number of other well known local families.

Juan's paternal uncle, Ramón Olazábal Arteaga, as coronel of miqueletes[12] sided with the Isabelinos during the Third Carlist War, growing to the commander of the entire formation[13] and also the civil governor of Irun.

[14] On the other hand, Juan's maternal uncle, Liborio Ramery Zuzuarregui,[15] made his name as a Carlist politician, Gipzukoan deputy to the Cortes and a Traditionalist writer.

A distant relative from a paternal branch, Tirso de Olazábal y Lardizábal,[16] became head of Gipuzkoan Carlism and one of the national party leaders.

In 1888 both Olazábal Ramery brothers, Juan and Javier,[21] defected from mainstream Carlism and joined its breakaway branch led by Ramón Nocedal, known as Integrism;[22] they followed the example of their uncle Liborio, who entered the Integrist executive as secretario of junta central.

[24] Juan returned to Gipuzkoa, building the party structures and mobilising its popular support in the province, which soon turned out to be a national Integrist stronghold.

In 1896 he was forced to resign after a failed attempt to block ministerial legislation he considered detrimental to the interests of the city, but was reinstated following a successful appeal and served until 1899.

[37] As they refused to step in line, the rebels, headed by Pedro Grijalba, Ignacio Lardizábal and Aniceto de Rezola, were expulsed by the provincial Junta.

[55] La Constancia combined traditionalist Catholic ultraconservatism launched as Integrism by Nocedal with the defence of local Gipuzkoan identity and loyalty.

[56] In the early 1930s it was integrated into the modern Carlist propaganda machinery and Olazabal ceded its directorship to Francisco Juaristi:;[57] since 1934 it included one page in Basque.

[68] Its immediate objective was negotiating a new Concierto económico with Madrid and indeed, a contemporary scholar considers the grouping simply a vehicle for pursuing economic goals of local industry tycoons.

[74] He is noted not only for work promoting traditional local legal establishments,[75] but also for efforts to sustain typical Gipuzkoan agriculture, like protecting Pyrenaic cattle breeds by means of introducing herdbooks,[76] supporting the Fraisoro agronomy school and supervising provincial veterinary services.

[81] Following the death of Ramón Nocedal early 1907, leadership of the Integrist organization, Partido Católico Nacional, was assumed by a triumvirate,[82] though few months later Olazábal became Presidente del Consejo.

Residing in San Sebastian he was away from great national politics; he did not compete for the Cortes and it was minority parliamentarian speaker, Manuel Senante, acting as party representative in Madrid.

Though formally the owner of national Integrist daily, El Siglo Futuro,[87] he left Senante to manage the newspaper and seldom contributed as an author, concentrating rather on La Constancia.

[91] Towards the monarchy Integrism remained ambiguous, with some sections of the party favoring different dynastical visions[92] and some leaning towards accidentalism, prepared to accept a republican project.

[93] Integrism, conceived by Nocedal as political arm of Spanish Catholicism,[94] has never gained more than lukewarm support of the bishops, alienated by its belligerent intransigence.

In the early 20th century the Spanish hierarchy abandoned its traditional strategy of influencing key individuals within the liberal monarchy,[96] and switched to mass mobilisation[97] carried by means of broad[98] popular structures and party politics.

[102] Since Olazábal cultivated traditionalist vision of Catholic political engagement,[103] in 1910s and 1920s Partido Católico Nacional was dramatically outpaced by new breed of modern christian-democratic organizations.

Since the Basque government did not deploy autonomous police to protect the building during the unrest,[135] caused by the nationalist bombing raid over the city, the prison was entrusted to the UGT militia unit.

On January 4 the socialist militiamen executed around 100 prisoners;[136] some were killed by hand grenades thrown into the cells, some were shot and some were reportedly slashed with machetes.