889 Buda, the first woman Freemason in Spain * Life and Career of Countess Julia Apraxin (1830-1913) ** The first woman Freemason in Spain László Vári According to the contemporary Spanish masonic protocol, «Doña Julia de Rubio y Guillén, Condesa de Apratxin» was admitted into the lodge Fraternidad Ibérica (Iberian Fraternity) of the National Grand Orient of Spain 1 in Madrid on 14 th June, 1880. The permission was granted by Grand Master Seoane himself as the head of the National Grand Orient of Spain, highlighting the lady’s manlike services for the French army certified by official documents 2 . As stated in the protocol, the initiation ceremony was attended by numerous Freemasons such as «Saulo», «Pelayo the 2 nd », «Abdherramán», «Roldán», «Marco Polo», «Hipócrates», two individuals named «Viriatos», «Murillo», «Avicena», two individuals named «Sócrates», «Washington», «Moltke», «Lamartine», «David», «Colón», «Churruca», «Américo», «Calvino», «Servet», «Trajano», «Licurgo», another individual named «Viriato», «Galeno», «Aristóteles»…» 3 (Back then, Masonic names were still in use in Spain while in * I am grateful to Edina Polácska PhD for her extremely valuable contribution on contemporary Spanish social conditions. ** While the Countess’s activity in Hungary is well documented and processed, we have only partial information about her life in Vienna, Paris and Madrid. This lack of information could only be eliminated through on-site archival research, however, online research in digitized newspapers and other archived of documents also helped a lot in gaining a broad overview. 1. María José Lacalzada de Mateo: La mitad femenina «para» la masonería y «en» masonería (1868-1936): balance y perspectivas, in Investigaciones históricas: Época moderna y contemporánea, ISSN 0210-9425, Nº 23, 2003, pp. 117-139. http://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/776586.pdf; i.e. later: María José Lacalzada de Mateo: Mujeres en masonería: Antecedentes históricos entre las luces y las sombras (1868-1938), Premia de Mar-Barcelona, Clavell, 2006. 2. «…en atención a su servicio varonil en el ejército francés, probado en el diploma de Oficial», in: Ernesto Milá: Estudios Sobre La Masonería, Valencia, Editorial PNL-Books, 2010. For excerpts from the book see the author’s blog: http://infokrisis.blogia.com/2009/010903-masoneria-femenina.-his- toria-de-una-heterodoxia..php. 3. Ernesto Milá’s blog: http://infokrisis.blogia.com/2009/010903-masoneria-femenina.-histo- ria-de-una-heterodoxia..php.