The Museu del Cinema de Girona was created from the exceptional collection of objects related to the world of pre-cinema and the films of Tomàs Mallol made up of 8,000 objects, 10,000 documents (photographs, posters, prints, drawings and paintings), 800 films and 700 books and magazines. Opened in 1998, it became the first museum of its kind in Spain and one of the few existing in Europe./p>
Entering the Museu del Cinema is to embark on a process of discovery. And the permanent exhibition has in the spectator their own point of view. This is not surprising. Throughout history, man has been fascinated by the moving image, from the primitive Chinese shadows until the early years of cinema.
This discovery process is divided into 10 sections plus an audiovisual, which serves as a prologue to the exhibition, and an epilogue that refers to amateur and children's cinema.The main discourse ends in the 1930s, with the arrival of the first televisions.
Thus the visitor gets an educational and entertaining understanding of the workings of magic lanterns, optical boxes, cameras obscura, chronophotography, gadgets for giving movement to the first images (phenakistoscopes, zoetropes, etc.…), projectors... The visitor even gets to be fooled by several optical illusions, which demonstrate that, since ancient times, the most important thing has always been to surprise
The first film exhibition in Catalonia took place on 5th May, 1895 in Barcelona. Almost a century later, in 1981, the Filmoteca de Catalunya, was born, dedicated to the conservation of film and audiovisual heritage and to the dissemination of film culture.
Today, the Filmoteca de Catalunya has a collection of more than 45,000 books, 20,000 graphic archives, 8,000 films, 5,000 sound tracks and 1,200 pieces of original film equipment. It is the result of the work of conservation, restoration, cataloguing, documentation and study of the film heritage of Catalonia carried out by this institution.
However, the best way to get to know the Filmoteca is through exhibitions, publications and film projections, nearly a thousand each year.
After acquiring a first projection room in the street Travessera de Gràcia and more than 20 years at the old Aquitània cinema in Sarrià, in 2012 the new headquarters in the district of El Raval were officially opened. This building, designed by Josep Lluís Mateo is the location for the main display and exhibition areas, a library and a bookstore.
The holdings and film collections are conserved in the other main site of the Filmoteca, the Centre de Conservació i Restauració, located in Terrassa, in the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya.
The CaixaForum is located in the former fàbrica tèxtil Casaramona (Casaramona textile factory) in Montjuïc, which specialised in the manufacture of blankets and towels. This building designed by Josep Puig is an exceptional example of Catalan industrial "modernista" architecture of the early twentieth century. It comprises a set of single-story buildings, a horizontal construction to facilitate the transfer of goods through a system of internal streets that at the same time also served as a firewall.
The building was acquired by Obra Social "la Caixa" in 1963. In 2002, after a restoration and expansion project, it became a cultural centre for Barcelona. It offers social, cultural and educational programming that includes ongoing events such as lectures, film screenings, performances, concerts and family activities.
In addition, a quarter of the total 12,000 m2 building is occupied by ancient, modern and contemporary art exhibitions. It also has an outstanding collection of artistic and documentary art media.
The history of Catalan bibliography cannot be understood without the task of acquisition, preservation and dissemination of collections with immense literary, artistic and scientific interest that the Biblioteca de Catalunya (The National Library of Catalonia) has held since its creation in 1907.
Notable amongst its holdings of approximately three million items, are the collection of nearly 20,000 manuscripts and 500,000 letters. There we find medieval marvels such as the Homilies d'Organyà (13th century), the Llibre de l'orde de cavalleria (Book of the Order of Chivalry), by Ramon Llull and the four great Chronicles; or seminal modern manuscripts such as the Oda a la Pàtria (Ode to the Motherland), by Bonaventura C. Aribau (1833), or L'Atlàntida, by Jacint Verdaguer.
Also notable are the newspaper and sound archives, as well as the graphic collections, with prints, drawings, maps and photographs, from the 16th century until the present day.
The Biblioteca de Catalunya also manages the Frederic Marès Book Museum, consisting of more than 1,500 documents that the collector gave to the institution. And also the Joan Maragall Archive, housed in the former residence of the poet.
From 1939, the Biblioteca de Catalunya has been based in the Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu in Barcelona, one of the most important complexes of 15th century Gothic civil architecture in Catalonia. As a result of the merger of several medieval hospitals in Barcelona, it was for many centuries the largest health facility in the country.
Cervera is home to one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in Catalonia. The imposing sobriety of the University building is the remaining trace of the institution that was built here.
It was the political circumstances that made the creation of this institution of higher education possible. King Felip V founded it in 1717 as compensation for damages suffered during the war of the Spanish succession, and became the intellectual centre of Catalonia.
The majestic architecture of the building follows a scheme borrowed from military architecture, with a rectangular floor plan and towers on the corners. The main façade is in the moderate Baroque style and was adapted to local character, while the second façade, the interior, represents the new neo-classical trends.
The most significant area of this majestic building is the paranymph or events hall, which also includes the chapel. On the altar there is a Baroque altarpiece made by the master Jaume Padró, a small apse with alabaster sculptures from Sarral surrounded by coloured marbles. The complex is presided over by the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the University and the representative of the Wisdom.
The greatest monument in Catalonia is also the largest bastioned fortress in Europe. The Castle of Sant Ferran occupies an area of 550,000 m² at the top of the hill of Figueres. As a good frontier Castle, the location is unbeatable: It has good views of the Serra de l’Albera, which creates the border with France, and the Gulf of Roses.
Undoubtedly it was constructed to meet the need to reinforce the border after the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659 and owes its name to King Ferran VI (Ferdinand VI). The fortification, which was begun in 1766 but was only completed in 1892, consists of two enclosures.
The interior, of more than 325,000 m2, consists of six bastions connected by stretches of wall. The size of the building cannot go unnoticed: stables with capacity for 500 horses, warehouses to store food for 10,000 people for a year, the main square, new pavilions for the accommodation of the officials and their families, and four big cisterns with a total capacity of nine million litres of water.
The exterior enclosure, with a perimeter of 3,120 metres, made up of three hornworks, seven ravelins and two counterguards. It is separated from the outside by a large moat of 10 hectares, which can currently be visited, including the underground galleries.
Its monumental dimensions have always made military activity both difficult and very costly which has frequently meant that it has not been used to its full potential. Since 1997 regular guided tours of the Castle of Sant Ferran have been organised.
Integrated into the Regional Network of the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya, the Ecomuseu-Farinera at Castelló d'Empúries has, from 2004, explained the story of the men and women of the region dedicated to the cultivation of the wheat grain and the various uses of the flour.
The building of la Farinera offers a tour of the Catalan industrial flour heritage. The machines, tools and structures exhibited are testimony of an activity that has developed since medieval times: first in the old flour mill, and from the end of the 19th century to 2001, at the modern flour mill factory.
The visit to the Ecomuseum is completed with a route that follows, up to the Pont de la Mercè, part of the five kilometres of the Rec del Molí (mill irrigation channel). This hydraulic infrastructure drove water from the weir at Vilanova de la Muga to the flour mill, skirting around and supplying the orchards and fields. Upon arrival at the flour mill, the water turned a Francis turbine from 1905, which was responsible for generating the energy necessary for the operation of the factory.
Walking through the Colònia Vidal Museum at Puig-reig allows to us know what life and work was like in a Catalan textile colony of the early 20th century. Spaces such as the school, the factory or the homes give testimony to the Industrial Revolution in Catalonia.
Situated right next to the Llobregat river in order to use its water as a source of energy, the Colònia Vidal formed part of one of the main concentrations of textile colonies in Europe. Notable within the architectural complex are buildings such as the owner’s tower, the manager’s tower, the factory, the Church, the Casino Theatre and the house of the women/school.
The Museum opened in 1995, and is part of the Regional Network of the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya. A route is suggested for visitors that will show them the facilities of the workers' colony such as the homes, the school, the library, the fishmonger, the washroom or the showers. The visit also includes a permanent exhibition which tells the story of the daily life of men and women who worked at the factory.
Right next to the Llobregat river, almost in touching distance of the town of Esparreguera, is one of the main witnesses to the industrial history of Catalonia: la Colònia Sedó. The large 1,400 CV turbine is one of the biggest attractions of the site, a cast iron machine which was the largest and most powerful in Spain and one of the most spectacular in Europe. Nowadays, water no longer drives it, but it has been converted into the Museum which houses the history of the colony.
In the former engine room you can see the model of the colony, where its story is told through a montage of light and sound, and a three-dimensional audiovisual is projected inside the turbine’s water pipe. The visit is rounded off with an explanation of the energy system that powered the industrial complex of Miquel Puig. The walk around the colony allows you to understand the social life and the production process of a 'small town' where the looms lived alongside the workers.
The Colònia Sedó industrial complex was founded in 1846, taking advantage of the waterfall of the old mill of Can Broquetes. Currently you can still see the halls dedicated to spinning the cotton, the canal and the lock of the waterfall, the roofs with their Catalan vault and the offices. Two of the defining features of the complex are the helical brick chimney of the old steam engine and the semicircular aqueduct that carried water from the river to the turbine.
In the midst of the woods of Castellar de N’Hug (Berguedà), the industrialist Eusebi Güell built the Asland factory, the first in Spain to produce portland cement, faster and more resilient than the conglomerates that had been used until then. This is an impressive modernista, building which, in its time, was a symbol of modernity and which today continues to amaze the visitors who come there.
The factory, owned by the Companyia General d’Asfalts i Pòrtland Asland, came into operation in 1904. The building was designed by the architect Rafael Guastavino, who built it in tiers to take advantage of the power of the waterfalls of the river Llobregat.
Due to the low temperatures in the area, the construction had to protect the whole space occupied by the machinery. To do this, an innovative architectural solution was chosen: the Catalan vault, flat brick vaults that were supported on a metal structure. The vault is what gives the façade of the factory its uniqueness.
Later, Rafael Guastavino exported this traditional technique to the United States, where he patented the Guastavino system. This system of self-supporting vaults with tiles and layers of mortar made a fortune and left its mark on architectural icons such as Grand Central Station, Carnegie Hall and the American Museum of Natural history, among others.
The industrial complex of Castellar de N'Hug operated until 1975, but in 2002 it reopened, becoming the Museu del Ciment, (Cement Museum), a space that allowed the history of the construction in our country to be reviewed. The museum, consisting of an interpretation centre and an external route that takes in the ruins of the factory, is affiliated to the Museu de la Ciència i la Tècnica de Catalunya (Museum of Science and Industry of Catalonia). With the visit, the importance of the complex at a time of strong growth of the industrial society is put into context.
