Mechanopolis

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Unamuno, Miguel de. (Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo). Mecanópolis (vt. Mechanopolis). First published in the newspaper literary supplement Los Lunes de El Imparcial (Madrid, Spain), August 11, 1913.[1] In Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction From Latin America & Spain. Translated and edited by Andrea L. Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2003. For other translations and reprints, see the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase.[2]

From Jeff Somers, "B&N "Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog" 15 July 2016: Mechanopolis as "one of the earliest examples of Spanish-language SF [...]":

You might be under the impression that the “machines take over after humanity dies off” trope is a relatively new one, but this 1913 story proves otherwise. Unamuno [...] tells a simple story of a man who, while near death in a strange desert, stumbles upon an empty city of machines where he learns [...] that he is one of the few humans left alive, and is regarded as a subject of pity by the artificial lifeforms. From this simple setup, Unamuno mines effective terror and horror; the story demonstrates that many of our most powerful science-fictional concepts have been with us much longer than we realize.[3]

Cf. and contrast city of machines in The City and the Stars/The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night

RDE, Initial compiler, 4Aug20