Opulent menus, inspired by the French cuisine and disdain for the traditional and home-made. In the 19th century the Catalan bourgeoisie and the great restaurants opted for a luxurious and sumptuous gastronomy, though it never became mainstream.
Instead, the popular and high-quality Catalan cuisine continued to live on in the fondes de sisos (the Inns of the Sixes - the cost in reales to stay the night), bringing homemade meals at affordable prices to everybody. These establishments popularised dishes such as sausage or pork loin with beans, pan-baked cod or baked macaroni gratin. The creativity and sense of humour stand out in the names of dishes such as la barretina - the Catalan hat - (vegetables with herring) or samarreta amb allioli - vest with aioli - (baked tripe). The Inns of Sixes also gave rise to customs such as the Thursday paella, a commercial event that sought to attract more customers on a particular day of the week that was usually slack.
The first references to the pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato) are also from the 19th century. According to the gourmand Nèstor Luján, the Catalan dish par excellence appeared in the rural world in an age with an abundance of tomatoes, taking advantage of them to soften the dry bread.
During the modern era, the basis of the rural Catalan cuisine was laid down. Exceptionally refined and complete, the gastronomy of the Renaissance, Baroque and the Enlightenment was the gateway to the traditional Catalan cuisine.
From the 16th to the 18th century, it underwent a revolution with the arrival of new products from the Americas: tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, cocoa, turkey and vanilla. In addition, it introduced changes in tastes, with the distinction between sweet and salty, and the popularity of new tastes such as cold drinks, salads, chocolate, rice and pasta. The lower classes and the convents were the most receptive to these new products, while the aristocrats and bourgeois were more conservative, preferring to stay with the medieval cuisine.
The most notable written evidence of Catalan cuisine in the modern era are Nuevo arte de cocina (Juan Altimiras), the Llibre dels secrets d'agricultura, casa rústica i pastoril (Fr Miquel Agustí), Instrucció breu i útil per los cuiners principiants (Francesc del Santíssim Sagrament), Avisos y instrucciones per lo principiant cuyner (Francesc Orri), El llibre de l'art de quynar (Fr Sever d'Olot) and the Llibre de cuina de Scala Dei (Monastery of Banyoles).
The current "boom" in Catalan cuisine has much in common with the first golden age of gastronomy of our country, which in the 14th and 15th centuries was considered the first in the Christian world, especially by the courts of Naples and Rome. This is reflected in documents such as the Llibre de Coch (Mestre Robert) or Com usar bé de beure e menjar (Francesc Eiximenis).
Far from the collective imagination that has Kings and nobles eating with their fingers, the Catalan medieval cuisine was noted for its refinement and its wealth of recipes both simple and exquisite. Becoming a symbol of social status, it also had gourmets and famous chefs, and was noted for its good table manners.
Despite not yet having products from America, there was a wealth of ingredients: cereals, all kinds of vegetables, spices and fresh fruit, nuts and dried fruit and pork. The rich added rice, noodles, poultry and game, and fresh or dried fish to their diet.
Catalan cuisine is also innovative from this period because for the first time women could participate in banquets, great meals conceived as theatrical spectacles. Also notable were the great variety of techniques, cooking vessels and utensils.
From the early daguerreotype to current media and distribution channels, Catalan photography has been at the forefront of a revolution lasting a little less than two centuries.
Months after the daguerreotype appeared in France (1839), Ramon Alabern became the first Catalan to take pictures with this new invention. Soon after, photographers such as José Martínez Sánchez and Juan Martí, bore witness to the Industrial Revolution.
At the end of the 19th century, the first Catalan artistic photographers appeared (Joan Vilatobà, Miquel Renom and Pere Casas Abarca), approaching Symbolism and Impressionism, while the second generation followed Pictorialism (Joaquim Pla and Claudi Carbonell). The Avant-gardism also came to Catalan photography, and the work of professionals such as Pere Català Pic and Gabriel Casas meant an artistic and technical revolution.
It was not until the 1950s that tradition of documentary photography was reawoken. A new generation (Francesc Català Roca, Ramon Masats, Xavier Miserachs, Oriol Maspons, Joan Colom, Leopoldo Pomés, Colita and Eugeni Forcano) showed reality both critically and ironically.
In the seventies and eighties, the dissemination and cultural prestige of the photograph increased, finally reaching the museums. With the arrival of the digital era, its use was further democratised.
During the second half of the 20th century, Barcelona experienced the largest urban expansion in its history.
The "Barcelona model" was born in the eighties thanks to the collaboration of the democratic institutions and architects such as Oriol Bohigas. From this period are the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial (Peña i Rius) or the Moll de la Fusta (Solà-Morales).
But the pinnacle of Catalan urban planning started with the choice of Barcelona as the host city for the 1992 Olympic Games. La intervenció a l’anella olímpica de Montjuïc inclou la restauració de l’Estadi Olímpic i les Piscines Picornell i la construcció del Palau Sant Jordi (Isozaki). The Vila Olímpica (Martorell-Bohigas-Mackay) brought the city to the sea with the construction of the Port Olímpic. Other examples of Olympic architecture are the Torre de Collserola (Foster), the Montjuïc Communications Tower (Calatrava) or the Hotel Arts (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill).
With the Fòrum Universal de les Cultures (2004), the Diagonal was extended to the sea, and the Centre Internacional de Convencions (Mateo), the Forum Building (Herzog and de Meuron) and the large photovoltaic panel (Martínez Lapeña and Torres) were built.
As for post-Forum, highlights include the spectacular displays of authorial architecture such as the Torre Agbar (Nouvel) or the Edifici Gas Natural (Miralles and Tagliabue).
The Catalan journal Dau al Set (1948) and the artistic group of the same name are considered the most important manifestations of the post-war avant-garde.
The vast majority of its founding members (the poet and playwright Joan Brossa, the philosopher Arnau Puig and the painters Joan Ponç, Antoni Tàpies, Modest Cuixart and Joan-Josep Tharrats) lived in the same neighbourhood of Barcelona, and linked the disagreement with the repressive ideological situation and the limited creative possibilities of the period. They also shared a great creativity, sensitivity and sense of action.
The name of the magazine played with the idea of the impossible (Dau al Set meaning the seventh face of a dice that has only six), and expressed the intention of the group, located between the negation and confusion of Dadaism and the liberating creative expression of Surrealism.
The political circumstances hindered the desire of Dau al Set to influence the social environment, and the freedom of expression of its members was above all creative and artistic. As well, they fought to prevent the expressive forms established by the regime, they showed that repression can not stifle creativity and they were the triggers for new attitudes of free expression.
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), artistic demonstrations in Catalonia adopted modern media such as posters and documentary photography.
The vehicle of slogans for awareness and mobilisation, posters stand out for their artistic creativity and techniques during this period.
Some of the most active poster artists were Josep Renau (Hoy más que nunca: Victoria), Martí Bas i Blasi (Feu tancs, tancs, tancs...), Jaume Solà (Unió és força), Lleó Arnau (Assassins!), Carles Fontserè (Llibertat!), Lorenzo Goñi (I tu... què has fet per la victòria?), Pere Català Pic (Aixafem el feixisme), Antoni Clavé (Catalans!... 11 de setembre), Lluís Garcia Falgàs (Informeu-vos dels que lluiten al front), Enrique Ballesteros "Henry" (Voy a luchar por tu porvenir) and Paco Ribera (Diada de la Dona Antifeixista).
Documentary photography offers a testimony of the reality both at the front and in the rearguard during the Civil War. Catalan photojournalists such as Agustí Centelles, Josep Maria Sagarra or Carlos Pérez de Rozas portrayed the daily life of the conflict side-by-side with the foreign professionals such as Robert Capa or Gerda Tardo, creators of legendary images.
It doesn't matter that it is not a public holiday. Every 23rd April, the streets, ramblas and squares around the country are filled with books, roses and flags to celebrate the Diada de Sant Jordi (the Day of Saint George), a day of participation in which the written and spoken word takes the leading role.
But the Festival of the Book has not always been linked to the patron saint of Catalonia. Driven by the publisher, Vicent Clavel, to promote the book in Catalonia, the first Book Day was on 7th October 1927. Two years later, the booksellers held it on 23rd April, and the success led to the change of date, which coincided with the death of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare.
Declared a Festa Nacional de Catalunya (National Festival of Catalonia), the Day of Sant Jordi has contributed since its inception to promote the production and marketing of books in Catalan. In addition, readers can interact with their favourite writers. Strolling amongst the book stalls and the tradition of giving roses just adds to the day.
The consolidation of Sant Jordi as the Festa del Llibre, internationally as well, comes with the proclamation by Unesco of 23rd April as World Book and the Rights of the Author Day.
In the 18th and 19th centuries a new social class, the bourgeoisie, pursued a more personal, emotional, original and, above all, rebellious art and claimed identification with a homeland and common roots.
In Catalonia, Romanticism had clear political connotations: the Catalan literati claimed the right to restore the language, literature, and popular culture.
The first romantic poem in Catalan language was Oda a la Pàtria, by Bonaventura Carles Aribau (1833), but it didn’t become ingrained until the coming of Lo Gaiter del Llobregat, by Joaquim Rubió i Ors. In the novel, the first romantic works in Catalan were by authors such as Antonio de Bofarull and Martí Genís i Aguilar. With regard to the theatre, the exponents were playwrights such as Víctor Balaguer, Edward Vidal and Frederic Soler, known as "Pitarra".
The Renaixença shares with Romanticism the will to revive the national consciousness after a period of decline, and in fact the two movements coexisted together throughout the 19th century.
In Catalonia two factions that coexisted were: the conservative (Bofarull), and the reclamatory (Balaguer). They shared the desire to restore the Jocs Florals (floral games) as an instrument to promote Catalan socially and to stimulate literary production. The definitive push of this literary event arrived in 1877, when Jacint Verdaguer and Àngel Guimerà were awarded prizes.
New against the old. Modern instead of Modernism. Noucentisme, the cultural and political movement of the early 20th century (1906-1923) was born with the aim to overcome the Catalan art scene that had dominated until then. According to the principles defined by Eugeni d’Ors, it had to recover the roots of the classical world and create a new language and iconographic universe.
The essay and poetry were the main literary genres of Catalan Noucentisme, and names such as Josep Carner, Enric Prat de la Riba and Pompeu Fabra mark the beginnings of the movement.
If the Noucentisme broke with modernism, the Avant-gardes broke with the Noucentisme. It arose in Europe between the first and second world wars as a reaction against the power and the aesthetic tastes of the bourgeoisie. It included artistic movements such as Cubism, which reinterpreted space and used geometric shapes; Futurism, which challenged classical beauty; Dadaism, characterised by negation and confusion; and Surrealism, which focused on the absence of reason in the creation.
In Catalonia the leading names of the avant-garde literary movement were poets such asJoan Salvat-Papasseit, Carles Sindreu, Joan Josep M. Junoy and J.V. Foix.
