Barcelona | Cultural Heritage. Goverment of Catalonia.

Barcelona

Barcelona through the works of Subirachs

Josep Maria Subirachs, an emblematic —and pioneering— Catalan avant-garde sculptor from the second half of the 20TH century, began his contribution to public sculpture between 1957 and 1960. His piece 'Forma 212' (1957), on the Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, was his first abstract sculpture to be placed in a street in Barcelona. 'The following year', his Las Tablas de la Ley relief appeared on the façade of the UB Law Faculty –created in collaboration with the ceramicist Antoni Cumella–, and in 1960, he sparked controversy with another abstract piece located in the Barceloneta neighbourhood: 'Evocación marinera'.
 
Later, without abandoning abstract plastic expression, Subirachs started to incorporate figurative elements, such as the submarine in the 'Monumento a Narcís Monturiol' (1963), made of concrete and copper and located at the Diagonal/Provença/Girona intersection, or the negative relief La medida del espacio-tiempo (1967), in cubic blocks superimposed to form a female nude, on Via Augusta/Marià Cubí.
 
Subirachs is also behind the concrete frieze which references the city’s history linking the old Barcelona City Hall building with the Novíssim building in Plaza de Sant Miquel, and the façade of the now-disappeared 'Tele/eXprés' (1966) newspaper building, on Calle Aragó, 390. Due to its emblematic location, 'Puerta de san Jorge' (1975) is a definite highlight, which connects the Palacio del Virrey with the Salón del Tinell, and the 'Monumento al presidente Francesc Macià' (1991) in Plaza de Catalunya is also well worth a mention. 
 
In 1986, Subirachs was commissioned to create the sculptural groups of the Sagrada Familia’s Passion façade, a work of extraordinary proportions that kept him busy him for twenty years. He composed a large altarpiece made up of figures and high reliefs carved in stone along with four bronze doors that combine different representative and symbolic elements, through which he managed to convey the theme of the Passion of Christ with eloquent expressiveness.
 
The Espai Subirachs is in the Poblenou district and makes part of the multifaceted artist’s legacy available to the public. Through over a hundred different works, representative of the different stages of his career, you can discover an artist who, as well as being a sculptor, was also a prolific creator of drawings, paintings, engravings, lithographs, posters, jewellery, medals, tapestries and stage designs.

A proposal brought to you in collaboration with Descobrir magazine.

A walk through the historical heritage of Mataró

Did you know that Mataró is a city with a great wealth of modernist heritage? Here, you’ll find factories, markets, shops, houses and much more. We suggest discovering the legacy of architect, historian and local politician Josep Puig i Cadafalch, with works such the Rengle market, the La Confianza shop, or the Coll i Regàs house. What’s more, you simply must see Antoni Gaudí’s first building, the only trace left of the Mataró Workers’ Cooperative factory, known as the Nau Gaudí.
 
Another must-see on your getaway to the capital of the Maresme is the prison, by Elies Rogent i Amat. It’s a building of great importance in the history of contemporary prison architecture, a construction which is the first application example of the panopticon model in the state. In Mataró, you will also find an authentic jewel of the Catalan baroque: the Dolors set of paintings, an extraordinary collection that is housed in the Basilica of Santa Maria. It’s one of the most important examples of the Catalan baroque, work of Antoni Viladomat i Manalt, considered the best Catalan painter of the first half of the 18th century. This year, a historic intervention has been carried out to restore the famous bells of Santa Maria in an aim to preserve the manual chiming of the bells, which has been named Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
 
On the outskirts of the city, at the eastern end of Camí Ral, in the Havana district, you’ll find an authentic treasure: a small temple of maritime tradition, built in the 17th century. It’s the hermitage of Sant Simó, where the Coca de Mataró was located, a maritime ex-voto of great artistic value that is now kept in the Maritiem Museum Prins Hendrik in Rotterdam.
 
Finally, you simply can’t leave Mataró without visiting the archaeological site of the Llauder tower, where you can see the remains of the stately buildings of a Roman villa built at the end of the 1st century B.C. which belonged to the territory of the Roman city of Iluro (now Mataró). It’s also an important archaeological site which has been declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest.
 
To find out more about the history of Mataró, visit the museum of Can Serra, which has various permanent and temporary exhibitions related to the city’s past, or Ca l’Arenes, where you can delve deeper into the municipality’s artistic activity.
English translation unavailable for Bat Costa Brava i Bat Costa Daurada, els nous abonaments del patrimoni cultural .
English translation unavailable for Una Mirada LGTBI+ al MAC.
English translation unavailable for Activitats per gaudir del patrimoni cultural aquesta Setmana Santa.
English translation unavailable for El Poble Vell de Corbera d’Ebre, el nou monument favorit de Catalunya.
English translation unavailable for Ciència en família: Taller “Què és el so?".

Modernisme in the Baix Llobregat

SANTA COLOMA DE CERVELLÓ

The first stop in this Modernista excursion to the Baix Llobregat is the Colònia Güell, in Santa Coloma de Cervelló. It was built in 1890 by the best Modernista architects of the time to rehouse the textile industries that Eusebi Güell had at the Vapor Vell in Sants, removing them in this way from the labour conflicts taking place in Barcelona. The ensemble is structured around the factory with houses for the workers, the school, a theatre and church. It is like a little Modernista city that has been kept almost the same as it was before, and it is still inhabited and full of life.

Antoni Gaudí was commissioned to design the church, but only the crypt was ever built, recognised now by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It was here that Gaudí first put some of his innovative ideas into practice, such as the catenary arches and the delightful fluid and dynamic treatment he gave the interior.

SANT JOAN DESPÍ

With this image in mind we go now to Sant Joan Despí where the teeming creativity of another Modernista architect, Josep Maria Jujol, awaits us. Jujol turned this villa into his "architectural experiments laboratory". His boundless creativity is especially evident in two buildings: the Torre de la Creu, better known as the Torre dels Ous ('Tower of Eggs') on account of the shape of the cupolas, and Can Negre, which has become Sant Joan Despí's symbol, par excellence, of Jujol's creative imagination on account of the unmistakable gallery on the facade in the form of a carriage.

ESPLUGUES DE LLOBREGAT

In Esplugues de Llobregat we delve further into the Modernista universe through two materials of prime importance during this period of such rich ornamentation: ceramics and tiles. In La Rajoleta, the ceramics museum, you can see the kilns of the former Pujol i Bausis factory, whose heyday coincided with Modernisme thanks to the commissions it received from Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch and Domènech i Montaner, amongst other architects. The excursion ends at the Museu Can Tinturé, where there is a chronological and artistic account of the evolution of ornamental tiles from the medieval period to the dawn of industrialisation.


*An excursion proposed in collaboration with the magazine Descobrir. 
 
English translation unavailable for Àlbum de suro de Nadal.
English translation unavailable for Passejada per les masies de Nou Barris.