Ethnology and popular demonstrations

On the Sunday before Carnival (Sexegesima Sunday), the town of Balsareny (Bages) recalls one of the guilds that were particularly important for the area: the traginers or muleteers. With mules, donkeys or horses, they walked along the river Llobregat, transporting goods between central Catalonia and the Pyrenees.

The Festa dels Traginers (Festival of the Muleteers) is heir to the celebrations that took place for Sant Antoni (17th January), patron saint of the guilds that used working animals, and as is attested to in documents dating to the late 19th century. After the mass in the Saint's honour, the animals are brought to be blessed and dances, games, races and competitions are organised.

These celebrations in Balsareny lost their importance in the early 1930s, when motor transport took over. After the Civil War, however, the use of draft animals returned and the idea of bringing the festivities arose. In 1943, the Festival as we know it today was established. At that time it was known by its Spanish name, the "Fiesta de los Arrieros" (and its Catalan name, the "Festa dels Traginers", was not used until 1966).

The main elements of the festival were defined at that time: the mass with the blessing of the animals and the subsequent parade with bands of musicians and horses marching through the streets of the town, presided over by the standard of Sant Antoni carried by a standard bearer and accompanied by two cordonistes or rope bearers. There is also a donkey, mule and horse race; the game of the rings and the dance of Sant Antoni. Over time, some changes have been introduced such as converting the parade into an historical-retrospective procession of the ancient muleteers of the road.

The festival has been declared a Festival of Tourist Interest (1970), a Traditional Festival of National Interest (1999) and forms part of the Catalogue of the Festive Heritage of Catalonia (2010).

How were the magistral formulas (medical preparations) prepared in the 15^th, 16^th or 17^th centuries? The pharmacy of Llívia, one of the oldest in Europe, reveals this mystery. It was already in existence in 1415. One of the first owners was the apothecary Jaume Esteve and the pharmacy remained in the family for 23 generations. Finally, in 1942, Lleó Antoni Esteve closed it down and it was given over to the care of the City Council and, later, to the Province of Girona.

Since 1981, the pharmacy equipment has formed part of the Municipal Museum of Llívia. The furniture, laboratory instruments, preparation and even glass jars from the 19th century have been preserved. Notable are the wooden Renaissance boxes painted with portraits of saints, sages, apothecaries and doctors.

However, the most distinctive characteristic of the collection are the albarello or cobalt blue ceramic pharmacy jars. The smaller jars, which used to contain the most precious or dangerous products, are kept in the cordialer. This piece of polychrome 18th-century furniture is one of the most eye-catching items in the collection. Also preserved is the library which contains, among other things, the book of formulas. The pharmacy space is contextualised by a series of audiovisual and digital resources.

Textile screen printing is known as the Lyonnaise printing technique and gives its name to the "Lyon Barcelona S.A." factory, the most important of its kind within Spain dedicated to printing and located in Premià de Mar. Since 1983, this municipality in the Maresme region, a pioneer in this textile activity, has hosted the Museu de l’Estampació (Museum of Printing), part of the Regional System of the mNACTEC (Catalan Museum of Science and Technology).

The purpose of the museum is to explain the different periods of textile printing in Catalonia, beginning with the 18th century and indianes or chintz. The production process of these patterned cotton fabrics, printed on just one side, was the gateway to the industrialisation of textiles in Catalonia in the 19th century.

And thus, naturally, the headquarters of the museum (since 2002) has become a symbol of industrial activity in the Maresme region. It is based in the old gas factory of Premià de Mar, built in the modernista and neoclassical style. It is the only remaining coal gas factory still standing in Catalonia. Inside, you can see the permanent exhibition showing the evolution of printing techniques up until the present day. Also on show are some period fabrics and clothing.

At the same time, the Museum of Printing preserves, studies and publicises the archaeological heritage of the town, as well as local history and ethnography.

The cultural life of Cervera has a hero: the historian, archivist and archaeologist Augustine Duran i Sanpere. Towards the end of the 1950s, he set up the Museum of Cervera and, in 1963, in the midst of an agricultural transformation, he created the Museu del Blat i la Pagesia (Wheat and Farming Museum) to document the life and work before the industrialisation of the Catalan fields.

The present Museu Comarcal de Cervera (Regional Museum of Cervera) is, in some ways, the legacy of this great man of culture. It is the sum of the old Museum of Cervera, the Wheat and Farming Museum and, finally, the Casa Museu Duran i Sanpere (Duran i Sanpere House Museum), the birthplace of the historian.

And this ancestral home is where the headquarters of the Museum is based. On the ground floor you can see the permanent exhibitions that showcase the artistic and historical collections of the old Museum of Cervera. You also take in the first floor and discover how a wealthy family lived in the 19th century. Much of the furniture and household objects have been retained, including the library of Agustín Duran i Sanpere, and his collection of still and film cameras.

The other site is the Wheat and Farming Museum, of an ethnographic character. It grew out of the call of Duran i Sanpere to the farmers of the region to try to bring together all those objects of the field that had fallen into disuse. It was created with a collection of more than 600 objects. Currently the museum is undergoing refurbishment.

The gabella was an old tax levied was on certain essential goods and, by extension, was also used to designate the warehouses where these products were kept. The Gabella is exactly what the 18th-century farmhouse, in the centre of Arbúcies, was called and where you will find the Museu Etnològic del Montseny (Ethnological Museum of Montseny, MEMGA) in the Gabella, a name that already marks an historical past linked to the people and the region. And thus MEMGA, opened in 1985, is dedicated to the preservation, dissemination, research and presentation of the cultural heritage of the Montseny massif.

The visit to the museum encompasses three separate areas. The ground floor is devoted to the first settlers and shows the evolution of the way of life in Montseny: the prehistorical, the world of the Iberians, Romanisation and the Middle Ages. The visitor takes a journey through history where representative objects (some original, some reproductions) are found. A room is dedicated to the Castle of Montsoriu (14th century) with a selection of materials recovered during the archaeological excavations. A large model of the fortress dominates the space.

The first floor focuses on the traditional self-sufficient society, which was based on the agriculture, livestock farming and forestry. It was structured around farms, which were the economic pillar of the 19th century Montseny up until the industrial revolution. Indeed, the top floor of the Museum is dedicated to the changes that the arrival of industry brought to the region. Notable among the collections of the Museum are the displays of artisanal crafts and the beginnings of industrialisation.

In the 17th century, the Papiol family settled in Vilanova de Cubelles, what is now Vilanova i la Geltrú. Their power and their properties increased until they became one of the most influential families of the time. A good demonstration of this can be seen in the house: a 5-storied mansion right on the main street, something which few families could afford.

The house was built in 1790 for Francesc de Papiol i Padró and it took 11 years to finish. An austere neo-classical façade hides opulent lounges in which, right up until the 1950s, the local high society would gather. In 1961, it was opened to the public as the Museum of Romanticism, following in the footsteps of the Can Llopis in Sitges. It has kept the original structure, layout and decoration.

The piano nobile (main floor), the main residence of the family, reflects a refined nineteenth century taste in which the grisailles on the walls stand out. During the visit you can see the music room, the billiards room, and in particular the large ballroom, where the family received guests. The tour also takes in the private rooms of the master of the house and the bathrooms and dressing rooms. The house also has a small private chapel, in the neo-classical style, and a library of about 6,000 volumes dating from between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The mansion is further divided into two areas: the servants area (which includes a kitchen, a bread oven and pantry) and farm labourer’s area (barn, cellar and stable). At the rear of the residence there is a romantic garden that houses carriages and bicycles from the time.

The Llopis family were dedicated to the cultivation of vineyards. In fact, the winery produced the Malvasia Llopis, a sweet wine characteristic of the town of Sitges. The last member of the family, the diplomat Manuel Llopis i Casades, bequeathed the family home to the Government of Catalonia, together with the furniture and other objects, for the purpose of setting up a museum dedicated to Romanticism. And thus the Can Llopis Romantic Museum opened its doors in 1949.

The building is a house built at the end of the 18th century in the sober and elegant neoclassical style. The interior reflects how a bourgeois family lived in the 19th century, evolving from the aristocratic tastes at the beginning of the century to the splendour of the romanticism. This evolution also can be seen in details such as the lighting, which combines candle chandeliers with gas lighting.

The Museum has a series of dioramas which illustrate daily life and the popular traditions of the 19th century. It also houses the collection of dolls and toys of the artist Lola Anglada, made up of more than 400 pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries. Before leaving, visitors can’t miss seeing the carriage with seating for up to 14 people and the collection of velocipedes.

What was the process of industrialisation like around the Ter River, one of the axes of the Industrial Revolution in Catalonia? How did the landscape and human activity coexist? The Museu del Ter, or Museum of the Ter, which forms part of the Territorial System of the mNACTEC (Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia), was created in Manlleu in 2004 specifically to promote the industrial and natural heritage of the central basin of the river Ter.

The Museum of the Ter is based at Can Sanglas, a former cotton spinning factory, located in the last section of the industrial canal of Manlleu. It dates from 1841 and is one of the oldest examples of the factories that were set up on the banks of the canal to take advantage of the hydraulic power.

Thanks to the first of the permanent exhibitions, The River Factory, Can Sanglas looks back at its period of industrial activity. This exhibition highlights the historical aspects of the industrialisation process of the central section of the Ter: from manufacturing jobs to mechanisation. Several experimental machines help to understand how the process of transforming cotton thread has evolved historically.

During the tour we find ourselves in the two power rooms that Can Sanglas had in order to take advantage of the hydraulic energy: the Francis turbine, which allows one to see how electricity is generated; and the Fontaine turbine, one of the first hydraulic motors installed on the Ter.  You can even see how the mechanical system operated the spinning machines!
This first section of the route connects with the second of the permanent exhibitions, The Industrial Society, which explains all the social changes caused by industrialisation.

Finally, the exhibition The Mediterranean Rivers takes a journey through the landscapes, hydrology, ecology, the natural heritage, the socio-environmental aspects and the sustainable management of Mediterranean fluvial courses. And the Ter Museum also houses the Centre d’Estudis dels Rius Mediterranis (Centre for the Study of Mediterranean Rivers, CERM) dedicated to environmental education and awareness-raising.

The Museu del Suro (Cork Museum), situated in Palafrugell, interprets and promotes the heritage that surrounds the world of cork in Catalonia, both before and after the industrial revolution.

Beyond its importance from an industrial point of view (the manufacture of cork and corks was consolidated during the 19th century and had a major impact on the Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà regions), the museum highlights aspects such as the shaping of a landscape, a way of life and an identity around this product. The centre explains the process of both artisanal and industrial cork production, from the ecological environment, the bark of the cork,  transportation, manufacture of bottle corks and their marketing.

The former Can Mario factory, symbol of the power of the Catalan cork sector, is currently the headquarters of the Museum. With ashlar walls with brick decoration, enamelled ceramics and wrought iron, this modernista style building is home to the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the workshops and an auditorium with the capacity for a hundred people.

The town of Gerri, in the Pallars region, cannot be understood without reference to what had been its economic driving force since the Middle Ages, salt. The salt basins, historically the most important there has ever been in Catalonia, give a characteristic appearance to the town, which is completed with the Reial Alfolí (Royal Salt Storehouse) or House of Salt and the monastery of Santa Maria, one of the jewels of the Romanesque to be preserved in the Pyrenees.

The storehouse and the salt basins are the two basic structures used from the middle ages to extract and treat salt in Gerri. On one side of the Noguera Pallaresa river, between the river and the town, the salt basins are irregularly shaped structures, with walls made of differently sized stone and covered with mud. The water that comes from a salt water spring close to the village is fed along here. Once it reaches these basins, one only has to wait for the heat to evaporate the water (a process also known as "Ofita mining") and collect the salt deposited on flat surfaces of stone framed with wooden planks.

The alfolí, or storehouse, was where this precious substance was stored, a rectangular building with three levels that currently houses the exhibits explaining the whole of the industrial process. Located in Plaça Major in Gerri, this is the largest civil building in terms of floor space in the whole of the Pallars region.

Though salt production continued well into the 20th century, currently the alfolí and the salt basins allow the visitor to find out about the process of production, processing, storage and marketing of the white gold, salt.