Since 1988, the Museu de la Vida Rural (Museum of Rural life, MVR) has been showing visitors the characteristics of traditional life in Catalonia, concentrating in particular on the peasantry. It is one of the leading centres of conservation and ethnological research in the country, with a varied collection which allows you to explore the history of the Catalan rural world through a modern and innovative museum project.
The permanent exhibition displays objects related to the peasantry, the arts and artisanal crafts: pieces that represent an authentic cultural basis of our society. The tour is organised by areas of work: those of agriculture, the trades of the village (priest, teacher, cafe owner, pastry chef, spinner, apothecary, barber ...) and the domestic.
The centre, integrated into the Network of Ethnological Museums, forms part of the Lluís Carulla Foundation and is housed in the ancestral home of the Carulla family in L'Espluga de Francolí. The old building was restored and remodelled to accommodate the collection of the Museu de la Vida Rural. In 2010 a new annex building was constructed and the whole of the museum was renovated to accommodate its exhibition scheme in order to facilitate understanding of the rural world from a contemporary perspective.
La Devesa in Girona is the largest urban park in the Principality. With more than 2,500 one hundred year old trees, the main lung of the city is a site dedicated to recreation where nature is manifested in all its splendour.
Long rows of plane trees fill the 40 hectares of the Park. Their distribution creates genuine avenues and botanic walks at the confluence of the rivers Güell, Ter and Onyar, to the west of the historic centre of the city. The trees of this green oasis are hybrids of American and Eastern species, most planted in 1850. The short distance between them has made them grow upright, reaching heights that are around 55-60 metres.
The site, in which all kinds of constructions have been built over the years, is arranged around several avenues. The entrance, from 1898, preserves one of the two twin lodges that welcomed visitors and in the Camp de Mart (the field of Mars) are the sports facilities built in 1942. Also within the Park of la Devesa are located shooting ranges and a model airplane field, the Felix Farró municipal football pitch, the facilities of the Girona Equestrian Society, the Fira de Girona area, the Girona Auditorium and the Congress Centre.
Located in the foothills of the Serra de Collserola, the Laberint d’Horta (Horta Labyrinth) is a historic park of Barcelona and one of the oldest gardens that remain in the city. Designed in 1791 by Joan Antoni Desvalls, it is made up of 750 metres of trimmed cypress trees and is inspired by the myth of Theseus: whoever makes their way to the centre finds love as a reward.
Desvalls, Marquess of Llupià, Poal and Alfarràs, was a nobleman who loved science, nature and art, passions that came together in the construction of the maze. Following the ideas of neo-classicism and in collaboration with Italian architect Domenico Bagutti, he created a garden with a labyrinth of cypress trees, sculptures and reliefs depicting characters from Greco-Roman mythology who symbolise the different levels of love.
Currently, the park covers an area of 9 hectares and is divided into two parts: the neo-classical garden and the romantic garden. They are noted for their botanical variety and abundance of ornamentation, as well as the architectural elements of the romantic gardens (temples, water channels and sculptures, as well as the Palace of the Desvalls family). Despite not being the refuge of Minotaur, the labyrinth tests the sense of direction of those who enter.
Between Cambrils and Montbrió del Camp is one of the best examples of romantic gardening in the Mediterranean. The Samà Parc is a mix of botanical garden, zoo and native forest, which today is still seducing its visitors thanks to the beauty and harmony of the whole and its delicate exoticism.
The developer of the park was Salvador Samà i Torrents, Marquis of Marianao, belonging to a Latin-American family who had settled in Cuba and who wanted to bring the atmosphere of the old colony to Baix Camp. The project was carried out by Josep Fontserè i Mestre, creator of the great cascade of the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona.
In 1881 he began planting in the Park with long rows of plane trees, mandarin trees, limes, horse chestnuts, water lilies, palms and yuccas, among other plant species. Later, the Park hosted animals from the Marquis’ private zoo which were exhibited in several enclosures and cages. Equally important in the composition of the Park are the architectural elements: the palace, the lake and the waterfall, the Pavelló dels Lloros (pavilion of the parrots) and the Torre de l’Angle (the angular tower) are the most notable.
To study, preserve and disseminate the history of the city; the Museu d’Història de Barcelona (Museum of the History of Barcelona - MUHBA) provides an explanatory showcase of the city through an extensive collection and various outstanding heritage areas. The Museum brings together cultural material that explains the past and the present and this translates into a rich and heterogeneous collection that continues to grow. The MUHBA is a mirror on the many faces of the city: an important historic centre, a new modernista city and a diverse complex of old towns and newly created districts.
The monumental complex of Plaça del Rei has been the foundational core of the Museu d’Història de Barcelona since it was created in 1943. In the ground beneath the Casa Padellàs you can see an important part of ancient Barcino; the visit allows you to stroll through the streets of Roman Barcelona, get close to the walls from the time, enter a laundry from the 2nd century AD, see the remains of the first Christian community of the city, etc. The complex is completed with important medieval buildings such as the Palau Reial Major (Royal Palace) and the Tinell salon. But in addition to these landmarks, the headquarters of MUHBA has a permanent exhibition, displaying pieces about the ancient municipal government, the guilds and brotherhoods of Barcelona, the cotton industry, festive and popular imagery of the city, nineteenth-century Barcelona and the urban reforms.
Over the years, this historic centre has expanded considerably and now includes up to 15 heritage spaces spread around the city. Notable is the Temple of Augustus, the Roman Sepulchral Way, the Call, Park Güell, Santa Caterina, the Turó de la Rovira and Fabra i Coats, among others.
Iesso, located in the present-day town of Guissona, is one of the few Roman cities in Catalonia on which the present-day city has not been completely superimposed. This gives it considerable archaeological potential. In addition, it is one of the most well-documented examples of urban activity that unfolded in Catalonia in 100 BC: a crucial historical moment in which the urban network inherited by our current cities, began to be constructed.
Ancient Iesso was an important inland capital of the empire. About 20,000 people lived there and it occupied twice as much ground as Barcino. In Roman hands, the city experienced 700 years of prosperity, based on agriculture and intense commercial activity. The original town was surrounded by walls and the streets arranged around two axes, the cardo maximus, on a north-south orientation, and the decumanus maximus, running from east to west, following the usual urban plan of Roman cities.
The constructive and commercial activity of Iesso continued up to the Visigothic period (6th century), even though the period that followed the dissolution of the Roman Empire in Guissona was a historic moment of unknown force.
Nowadays, the Archaeological Park of Iesso offers the perfect example in which to discover the development and the transformation of the Roman city over time. Notable are the large public baths, with an advanced system for the circulation of water, the remains of a facility to produce wine and a large manorial house organised around a central courtyard.
The Drassanes Reials, the Royal Shipyards of Barcelona, were the great factory for the galleys that the Crown of Aragon needed at the height of its Mediterranean expansion. Located by the sea and at the foot of Montjuïc, for many years it was thought that they were the largest and most complete medieval shipyards in the world to have been preserved. But the excavations in 2012 showed that, at the end of the 16th century, on top of the old medieval building,a new shipyard had been constructed that corresponds to the current building.
The King Jaume I instigated the creation of the shipyards, even though it was Pere III who, in collaboration with the city and the Government of Catalonia, gave the final impetus at the end of the 14th century. The first building of this infrastructure was a large walled construction with a tower at each corner; later it was covered and expanded. The large gothic hall of eight naves that we see today dates from the 16th century, although it maintains the original gothic style. It is a wide and well-illuminated space thanks to the large windows and is covered with a wooden roof.
Currently the building is home to the Museu Marítim de Barcelona (Barcelona Maritime Museum). The collection was started in 1929 and has been enriched over the years. Highlights include the models of ships, nautical instruments, votive offerings, maritime paintings, figureheads and cartography. Also very popular are the replicas of the Royal Galley of Joan d’Àustria and the schooner of Santa Eulàlia.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, Tortosa was a commercial enclave of the highest order. This splendour can be seen in buildings such as the Cathedral, the noble palaces, the Episcopal Palace, the walled enclosure or the llotja (the exchange). In the 16th century Tortosa was one of the most important cities in Catalonia politically, economically and demographically. It is from this period that the Royal Colleges date, the most important Renaissance complex in Catalonia.
The monumental complex consists of three buildings. The most important thing is the College of Sant Jaume i Sant Maties, from 1564, which started out to educate young Muslim converts. It is a large two-story building organised around a central courtyard – the only Renaissance courtyard in Catalonia - noted for its rich sculptural ornamentation with a strong Italian influence.
The other building is the College of Sant Jordi i Sant Domènec, from 1578. It was originally a Dominican convent, but Francoist shelling (1937-1939) left only the simple Renaissance portal of two buildings standing.
Completing the complex is the Church of Sant Domènec, from 1585. It is a church with a single nave, in Gothic style, with side chapels. Currently the central nave is dominated by the storage-archive from the now disappeared town hall. Since 2008, it has hosted the Renaissance Interpretation Centre.
The Cabdella Power Station, located in the municipality of La Torre de Cabdella, was the first hydroelectric power station in Catalonia. Its gestation was at the end of the 19th century when Emili Riu, journalist and politician from Sort, found a way to take advantage of the large water reserve of the Vall Fosca, which exceeded 50 million m3.
In 1914 the company, Energia Elèctrica de Catalunya (Electricity Energy of Catalonia) put the hydroelectric power station in operation. It was an ambitious plan that took advantage of the waters of the Lake Gento system through a 5 kilometre long canal with an elevation of 836 metres. In addition, they had to install new infrastructure: a funicular railway, access roads, narrow-gauge railways, homes for employees, etc. Even so, the project was finished in just two years.
After a time, the power station was transferred to La Canadenca company (now Fecsa-Endesa). Currently, in one part of the installation, we can find the Cabdella Hydroelectric Museum, belonging to the network of museums of the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya, which appreciates what the power station meant both for industry and also for the region.
Defined by the playwright Àngel Guimèra as one of the cathedrals of wine, the modernista cellar of Pinell del Brai is the architectural expression of the agricultural cooperatives in Catalonia at the end of the 19th century. Its construction, in 1919, was the responsibility of Cèsar Martinell who used all the elements of the traditional Catalan architecture, the modernista aesthetic, and enriched it with the technical innovations of his teacher Antoni Gaudí.
The light that is filtered from the windows, the floor plan reminiscent of a church and the feeling of spaciousness recreates the interior of a Gothic Cathedral. But beyond the architectural beauty of the building, Martinell created a functional space designed for the production of wine. For this reason, some important technical innovations were incorporated: the structure of the warehousing based on parabolic arches, the ventilation system through large windows or insulation in the cavity walls of the containers in which the wine is made.
The most characteristic element of the winery is undoubtedly the glazed ceramic frieze on the façade designed by the painter Francesc Xavier Nogués, where there are scenes of the harvest and the production of wine and oil. Despite it being spectacular, due to the lack of budget, it was taken out of the initial project and was not incorporated until 1949.
