Families

In Roman times, with the arrival of spring, the houses were decorated with flowers and herbs. The festivals of the Enramades or bowers continue this tradition, covering the streets with carpets of flowers to celebrate Corpus Christi. One of the most prominent festivals of the Enramades is in Arbúcies, which already appears in documentation from the 16th century and was declared a traditional Festival of National Interest in 1999. It is celebrated during the eight days of the Corpus Christi festival.

In its beginnings, branches were placed in front of the houses, so that the whole street would be covered with garlands made of leaves and flowers. Hence the name "enramades" or bowers. Today the branches and garlands have been replaced by paper and plastic flags. However, what has lasted up to the present day are the carpets of flowers that were used to decorate the streets along which the solemn Corpus Christi procession passed. The women and children would gather flowers from the woods during the vigil and would scatter them on Corpus Christi day itself. During the post-war period (1947), they started to make drawings and designs with the flower petals.

Until the last century, the Festival of the Enramades in Arbúcies had a strong religious flavour. The procession, led by the passage of the Blessed Sacrament, was the main element of the traditional celebration. Since 1977, it has been replaced by a parade with giants, pipers, floats and other festive elements. The main event of the secular celebration is the dance that each district performs in the most representative style.

From discovering bats to exploring the Milky Way. The Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences works towards the conservation, study and dissemination of science around some very diverse subjects: palaeontology, geology, botany, meteorology and, in particular, zoology. And specifically, one of the most important collections it houses is that of butterflies from around the world and tropical beetles.

Visitors can also discover the permanent exhibition of fossils from the late Triassic site of Montseny (250 million years ago), samples from the mining of minerals at Gualba, Matagalls and Vallcarca, and a herbarium of lichen.

Since 1987, the headquarters of the Museum has been an old modernista tower known as La Tela, or the Casa Pius Anfres, to which a new building of more than 2,000 m² was added in 2012, making it one of the leading museums of natural sciences in Spain. The garden that surrounds the complex has a display of botany and geology from the Vallès Oriental region.

In the new facilities there is a space set aside for the firmament. This is the planetarium, with a dome 6 metres in diameter. Here you can see projections of the night sky from both the past and the future!

In addition to these facilities, the Museum also manages the Nature Room at Can Cabanyes, in the Can Cabanyes Nature Reserve, and the Granollers Meteorological Station on Puig de les Forques.

The visit to the Girona City History Museum starts with a look at the building itself. It is a Gothic mansion (15th century) owned by the Cartellà family, which became the Capuchin convent of Sant Antoni in the 18th century. The cemetery, the cistern and the cloister have been preserved from this time. At the end of the 19th century it was converted into a school and finally, in 1981, it was transformed into a museum. In addition, it houses the remains of the wall of the ancient Gerunda and part of the enclosure of the medieval Cal or Jewish quarter.

In all, a journey through the history of Girona which already indicates what the visitor will find on display inside: a chronological journey through the Roman, medieval, modern and contemporary Girona that is completed with a look at various Catalan traditions such as the cobla and the sardana.

Among the most notable exhibits are: the fragment of the pavement mosaic of Can Pau Birol, from 300 AD; the bronze sculpture of the Angel from the Cathedral of Girona, made in 1764 by Ramon Salvatella; modernista and noucentista works by the sculptors, Fidel Aguilar and Ricard Guinó; and posters of political events from the Transition to Democracy in Girona, among other items.

The Museum also manages the air-raid shelter of the Jardí de la Infància, from the Civil War, and the modernista branch of the Agència Gómez.

One of the consequences of the French Revolution was the birth of nationalism throughout Europe. Catalonia did not remain on the sidelines and, in the mid-19th century, the Renaixença began, a cultural movement whose aim was to make Catalan a language of literature and culture and, at the same time, to exalt the history of Catalonia and the idea of patriotism.

Within this context, the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (Hiking Centre of Catalonia) was formed in 1890 in Barcelona. The founding objective was "to promote excursions around our region in order to make it better known and appreciated, and also to publish papers resulting from these excursions, creating a library and archive". And what better way, in the late 19th century, of documenting these outings than through photography.

The Centre Excursionista collected such a large amount of material that a Photographic Archive had to be created, situated on Carrer Paradís in Barcelona. Currently, it has more than 100 collections (400,000 images) from private donations and bequests. The themes are varied: in addition to landscapes of Catalonia and mountain activities, there are photographs of archaeology, caving, water sports, cycling, boxing, etc. The whole archive is an important historical legacy of Catalonia of the 19th and 20th centuries.

At the same time, the Archive also shows the technical evolution of photography. There are collodion glass plates from the 1860s, silver bromide gelatin plates from the late 19th century, nitrates, stereoscopic plates and autochromes. Also preserved is historical photographic equipment such as cameras, tripods, laboratory instruments and light meters.

The gabella was an old tax levied was on certain essential goods and, by extension, was also used to designate the warehouses where these products were kept. The Gabella is exactly what the 18th-century farmhouse, in the centre of Arbúcies, was called and where you will find the Museu Etnològic del Montseny (Ethnological Museum of Montseny, MEMGA) in the Gabella, a name that already marks an historical past linked to the people and the region. And thus MEMGA, opened in 1985, is dedicated to the preservation, dissemination, research and presentation of the cultural heritage of the Montseny massif.

The visit to the museum encompasses three separate areas. The ground floor is devoted to the first settlers and shows the evolution of the way of life in Montseny: the prehistorical, the world of the Iberians, Romanisation and the Middle Ages. The visitor takes a journey through history where representative objects (some original, some reproductions) are found. A room is dedicated to the Castle of Montsoriu (14th century) with a selection of materials recovered during the archaeological excavations. A large model of the fortress dominates the space.

The first floor focuses on the traditional self-sufficient society, which was based on the agriculture, livestock farming and forestry. It was structured around farms, which were the economic pillar of the 19th century Montseny up until the industrial revolution. Indeed, the top floor of the Museum is dedicated to the changes that the arrival of industry brought to the region. Notable among the collections of the Museum are the displays of artisanal crafts and the beginnings of industrialisation.

Strategically located at the top of the mountain of Montjuïc, the castle, which bears the same name, is an imposing defensive construction that follows the model of star-shaped fortifications. Its current appearance is due to the reformations carried out on the old installations by the military engineer, Juan Martín Cermeño, during the 18th century.

But, beyond its architecture, Montjuic Castle has been the scene of numerous bloody episodes and acts of repression throughout its 400 year history. Currently, the site is the property of the city and has become a symbol of Barcelona.

The origins of the castle date back to 1640, during the Catalan Revolt (the Guerra dels Segadors), when a small fort was built around an ancient watchtower. This was the beginning of the militarisation of the mountain, something which marked its history until the middle of the 20th century.

This small initial fortification was completely renovated and modernised by Juan Martín Cermeño. After the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), ownership of the castle passed to the monarchy and a permanent garrison was established. Along with the Citadel, Montjuïc became the guardian of the city of Barcelona.

The renovation led to the demolition of the original fort and the construction of new buildings on an irregular trapezoidal plan adapted to the topography of the mountain, with four bastions at the ends and a covered perimeter path. Cermeño completed the "modernisation" of the facilities with the provision of toilets and water tanks and ordered the construction of the moat.

Throughout the 19th century, the castle once again had a military importance in the repression of insurrectionist movements in the city. Up to 3 times (1842-1843 and 1856) Barcelona was bombarded from the fortress, which was also used to imprison unionists, anarchists and revolutionaries, as well as during the Setmana Tràgica (Tragic Week) of 1909. With the Spanish Civil War the Republican government used the area for similar purposes. Later, the castle instead became a War Memorial to the victors, a military prison and the scene of councils of war (its most political significance was as the site of execution of the president, Lluís Companys).

It became a military museum in 1963. Finally, the Castle passed to municipal ownership in 2007, definitively closing the doors of the museum and taking back the space for the city.

In the 17th century, the Papiol family settled in Vilanova de Cubelles, what is now Vilanova i la Geltrú. Their power and their properties increased until they became one of the most influential families of the time. A good demonstration of this can be seen in the house: a 5-storied mansion right on the main street, something which few families could afford.

The house was built in 1790 for Francesc de Papiol i Padró and it took 11 years to finish. An austere neo-classical façade hides opulent lounges in which, right up until the 1950s, the local high society would gather. In 1961, it was opened to the public as the Museum of Romanticism, following in the footsteps of the Can Llopis in Sitges. It has kept the original structure, layout and decoration.

The piano nobile (main floor), the main residence of the family, reflects a refined nineteenth century taste in which the grisailles on the walls stand out. During the visit you can see the music room, the billiards room, and in particular the large ballroom, where the family received guests. The tour also takes in the private rooms of the master of the house and the bathrooms and dressing rooms. The house also has a small private chapel, in the neo-classical style, and a library of about 6,000 volumes dating from between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The mansion is further divided into two areas: the servants area (which includes a kitchen, a bread oven and pantry) and farm labourer’s area (barn, cellar and stable). At the rear of the residence there is a romantic garden that houses carriages and bicycles from the time.

The Llopis family were dedicated to the cultivation of vineyards. In fact, the winery produced the Malvasia Llopis, a sweet wine characteristic of the town of Sitges. The last member of the family, the diplomat Manuel Llopis i Casades, bequeathed the family home to the Government of Catalonia, together with the furniture and other objects, for the purpose of setting up a museum dedicated to Romanticism. And thus the Can Llopis Romantic Museum opened its doors in 1949.

The building is a house built at the end of the 18th century in the sober and elegant neoclassical style. The interior reflects how a bourgeois family lived in the 19th century, evolving from the aristocratic tastes at the beginning of the century to the splendour of the romanticism. This evolution also can be seen in details such as the lighting, which combines candle chandeliers with gas lighting.

The Museum has a series of dioramas which illustrate daily life and the popular traditions of the 19th century. It also houses the collection of dolls and toys of the artist Lola Anglada, made up of more than 400 pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries. Before leaving, visitors can’t miss seeing the carriage with seating for up to 14 people and the collection of velocipedes.

What was the process of industrialisation like around the Ter River, one of the axes of the Industrial Revolution in Catalonia? How did the landscape and human activity coexist? The Museu del Ter, or Museum of the Ter, which forms part of the Territorial System of the mNACTEC (Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia), was created in Manlleu in 2004 specifically to promote the industrial and natural heritage of the central basin of the river Ter.

The Museum of the Ter is based at Can Sanglas, a former cotton spinning factory, located in the last section of the industrial canal of Manlleu. It dates from 1841 and is one of the oldest examples of the factories that were set up on the banks of the canal to take advantage of the hydraulic power.

Thanks to the first of the permanent exhibitions, The River Factory, Can Sanglas looks back at its period of industrial activity. This exhibition highlights the historical aspects of the industrialisation process of the central section of the Ter: from manufacturing jobs to mechanisation. Several experimental machines help to understand how the process of transforming cotton thread has evolved historically.

During the tour we find ourselves in the two power rooms that Can Sanglas had in order to take advantage of the hydraulic energy: the Francis turbine, which allows one to see how electricity is generated; and the Fontaine turbine, one of the first hydraulic motors installed on the Ter.  You can even see how the mechanical system operated the spinning machines!
This first section of the route connects with the second of the permanent exhibitions, The Industrial Society, which explains all the social changes caused by industrialisation.

Finally, the exhibition The Mediterranean Rivers takes a journey through the landscapes, hydrology, ecology, the natural heritage, the socio-environmental aspects and the sustainable management of Mediterranean fluvial courses. And the Ter Museum also houses the Centre d’Estudis dels Rius Mediterranis (Centre for the Study of Mediterranean Rivers, CERM) dedicated to environmental education and awareness-raising.

The Museu del Suro (Cork Museum), situated in Palafrugell, interprets and promotes the heritage that surrounds the world of cork in Catalonia, both before and after the industrial revolution.

Beyond its importance from an industrial point of view (the manufacture of cork and corks was consolidated during the 19th century and had a major impact on the Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà regions), the museum highlights aspects such as the shaping of a landscape, a way of life and an identity around this product. The centre explains the process of both artisanal and industrial cork production, from the ecological environment, the bark of the cork,  transportation, manufacture of bottle corks and their marketing.

The former Can Mario factory, symbol of the power of the Catalan cork sector, is currently the headquarters of the Museum. With ashlar walls with brick decoration, enamelled ceramics and wrought iron, this modernista style building is home to the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the workshops and an auditorium with the capacity for a hundred people.