To find out about the historical memory of the country, the conservation of the documentary heritage becomes key. In Catalonia, 330 archives are in charge of preserving and dissemination of this valuable personal, legal and institutional testimony.
Whether they are publicly owned (local, regional, provincial or national), belong to official bodies (universities, professional associations, etc.) or belong to private entities (associations, foundations, etc.), in all these archives you can find very diverse documentation: textual, audio-visual, cartographic and electronic.
The Catalonia Archives System (SAC) is the body that oversees standards and common procedures for the management and dissemination of the documentary heritage of Catalonia. These include, among others, the archives of the Catalan Government, the Crown of Aragon, the archives of municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, the provincial councils, the archives of the universities and of the parishes and the churches.
The four great Chronicles were written in the late 13th and 14th centuries and form the finest histographical collection from medieval Europe. Their authors, Jaume I, Bernat Desclot, Ramon Muntaner and Pere el Cerimoniós, aimed to leave a record of facts which they intended would be of educational value. The works of Jaume I and Pere el Cerimoniós are considered to be the only autobiographies of medieval monarchs.
In the first of the Chronicles, the Llibre dels feits, King Jaume I tells of the facts of his life, leaving out those that might have harmed the image he wanted to convey of a heroic and courtly monarch.
In the Llibre del rei En Pere, Bernat Desclot, there is no direct evidence of what he relates. Although it is noted for its careful documentation, its story offers a clearly interpretative vision of Pere el Gran.
Although there is direct evidence many of the facts told in the Llibre de Ramon Muntaner, the author manipulates history. He also doesn’t hide his enthusiasm for monarchs, whom he considers to be supernatural beings protected by divine grace.
The fourth of the Chronicles, the Llibre del Rei Pere III, is noted for its literary quality. However, it has always been the least appreciated because of its distance from the epic and chivalrous spirit and presents a King obsessed with imitating and surpassing his predecessors.
The codices of the four major Chronicles are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.
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 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.
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.
