Ethnology is more than just a set of pieces. The objects are the starting point allowing visitors to interpret their social surroundings. This is the main premise of the current Ethnology Museum of Barcelona, fully renovated in 2015.
It began in the first decade of the 20th century, when a group of pioneering intellectuals in Catalan ethnology saw the need to preserve and interpret traditional societies. Ultimately, two institutions were opened, the collections of which would form the foundation of the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona: the Museum of Popular Arts and Industries (1942) and the Ethnological and Colonial Museum (1949). They collected and exhibited objects from the five continents. Currently a part of this collection can be seen in the Museum of World Cultures.
After its latest remodelling, the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona is now focused on the Catalan area, but without forgetting its relationship with other communities and cultures. The main hub is the permanent exhibit “Sentir el patrimoni” (Feel the Legacy).
The central space of the room is occupied by six large objects (a boat, a wine press, a loom, a blacksmith blower and an herbal cabinet) which symbolize six thematic areas that make up all cultures. They are surrounded by other pieces that show the peculiarities and the universality of human culture. A whole side of the room is made up of a large frieze of objects of different geographic, historic and thematic origins.
The exhibit has audiovisual resources and multimedia content and even an area where visitors can touch certain pieces. It is also recommended to visit the two inner patios. In one of them, visitors can see the two giants of the city of Barcelona, Queen Violant and King James I, created by Domènech Umbert in the year 1984.
Murals, painting on wood, sculpture, textiles, clothing, documentary collections, metalwork, objects for the liturgy, etc. The current collection of the Museu Diocesà d'Urgell (Diocesan Museum of Urgell) is a reference point of sacred art in which the Beatus de Liébana particularly stands out, one of only two copies in Catalonia of the work that the Abbot Beat, from the Monastery of Liébana, wrote at the end of the 8th century, commenting on the Book of Revelation.
Curiously, the Museum grew out of a temporary exhibition that took place in 1957 with the pieces from the Cathedral Treasury. Such was the success of the exhibition that it was made permanent and the collection was expanded with pieces from throughout the diocese in the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque styles and from the 19th century. Among these acquisitions there are treasures such as the Papal Bull of Pope Sylvester II.
In 1969, the Church of la Pietat (annexed to the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell) was adapted to house the Museum. This space brought its own works to the collection such as the Pieta altarpiece and the Dormition group, made by the sculptor Jeroni Xanxo.
One of the most significant works of the collection is El retaule dels Goigs de la Verge (The Altarpiece of the Joys of the Virgin), from Abella de la Conca. It is by Pere Serra and dates from the 14th Century. In addition to its artistic value, it has a history of white-collar theft behind it. It was stolen in 1972 and, after a long journey, was recovered six years later in New York.
Frederic Marès, in addition to being a sculptor, developed a passion for collecting from a very early age. Over a period of more than 80 years, he assembled a large number of works of art (particularly sculpture) and more than 50,000 objects. In 1944, he gave his collections to the city of Barcelona which exhibited the collection two years later at the Museu Frederic Marès (Frederic Marès Museum), located in the former Royal Palace of the Counts of Barcelona.
In the basement and on the first two floors the
collection of Hispanic sculpture from ancient times until the 19th century are concentrated . One of the jewels in the crown is
L’aparició de Jesús als seus deixebles al mar (The Appearance of Jesus to his Disciples at the Sea), attributed to the Master of Cabestany, a masterpiece of the Catalan Romanesque which came from the monastery of
Sant Pere de Rodes. Sculpture of the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque periods are also well represented. To a lesser extent, other artistic collections are on display (painting, metalwork, furniture and textiles).
Also displayed in the same building are the objects that Marès had collected: dolls, clocks, fans, pipes, playing cards, daguerreotypes, pharmacy jars, tin soldiers, etc. This area is known as the
Gabinet del col·leccionista, or the Collector’s cabinet (Marès called it the Sentimental Museum). The visitor can take a tour through 17 rooms, in which the thousands of curious and endearing objects have been brought together which reflect the life and customs of the past, especially from the 19th century.
Finally, those who wish to delve more deeply into the figure of Frederic Marès can visit the
study/library of the artist. This space has a set of sculptural works by Marès, which he himself chose to display to the public, as well as a number of personal items.
From archaeological finds from the Neolithic age and the Roman era, up to contemporary paintings, as well as Baroque carvings and modern paintings. The Museu Comarcal de Manresa (Manresa Regional Museum) is thematically multidisciplinary and the collections it has on display focus on the art and history of Manresa, Bages and Catalonia.
It began with a project in 1896, although it was at the end of the 70s that the museum took on the shape it has today. Located since 1940 in the old school of Sant Ignasi, the Museum is located within the area of influence of Ignatius of Loyola, near the
Cova de Sant Ignasi (Cave of Saint Ignatius) and the Gothic church of
Santa Maria (La Seu). The building is a large mansion built around a neoclassical courtyard.
During the tour, the visitor will find archaeological objects ranging from the Neolithic up to the Romanisation of the area, a collection of medieval pottery decorated in green and purple of the fourteenth century and Baroque polychrome carvings of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2014, an area devoted to Antoni Viladomat i Manalt was opened, thanks to the loan of 12 works from
MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art).
It is worth stopping in the area of modern and contemporary art where you will find an important collection of dioramas and paintings by Josep Mestres Cabanes, a designer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and paintings and engravings by Alfred Figueras. A room is devoted to the artistic works of the Garriga-Mir Arts Foundation.
The Museum also has a multi-sensory module called "La Mirada Tàctil" (The Tactile Look), a tactile interpretation to make the visit as accessible as possible.
One of the most important
collections of Catalan Romanesque art in Catalonia can be seen in the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona (The Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona), located in the Episcopal Palace. As well as making a stop in the medieval period, visitors can take a trip back through time: from the prehistoric era to the modern age.
Most notable in the extensive Romanesque room are the architectural elements that come from the
cloisters of the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Solsona: several capitals and an historiated column from the workshop of Master Gilabert de Tolosa.
Also outstanding is the
exhibition of Virgin and Child paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries and major examples of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque wall painting from the complexes of
Sant Quirze de Pedret and Sant Vicenç de Rus , the paintings on wooden panels from the side of the main altar of the Church of Sant Andreu de Sagàs, the Gothic pabel with the scene of the Last Supper of Santa Constance of Linyà and the altarpiece of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà.
The Diocesan Museum of Solsona was created in 1896 by Bishop Ramon Riu i Cabanes. The aim was the same as for those of the other ecclesiastical museums, such as the
Episcopal Museum of Vic, founded 5 years earlier: to preserve the heritage of the diocese and to
contribute to the national reconstruction launched by the Catalan Renaixença. All this wealth was endangered with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil war in 1936. For this reason, part of the collection was moved to Geneva and returned to Solsona after the war. The current Museum is the result of renovations carried out in the 1980s.
The Molí de les Tres Eres, the Mill of the Three Ages, formed part of a chain of three water powered flour mills that operated in Cambrils from the 14th century until the late 19th century. After being put to a variety of uses and after years of neglect, finally the old flour mill became the headquarters of the Museu d’Història de Cambrils (History of Cambrils Museum). It currently houses two permanent exhibitions that explain the development of the municipality.
The archaeological exhibition "Cambrils: the origins" takes a historic journey from prehistoric times to the late Roman period, through Neolithic Iberian and Roman objects that come from the various archaeological sites in the town. In particular, the Roman villa of La Llosa. Notable is a lapidary or carved stone with a representation of the adolescent god Bacchus and an oil lamp decorated with a mask, both from the 1st century AD.
Once the mill had been renovated in 2001, a permanent exhibition was opened in the milling room called "El Molí de les Tres Eres: testimoni viu del passat" (Mill of the Three Ages: living testimony of the past). Here, visitors can see the miller’s equipment and machinery and, once a week on the guided tour, the mill is put into operation. After more than 100 years, the mill has not only gone back to grinding wheat and flour, but has also become a living example of pre-industrial heritage.
How were the magistral formulas (medical preparations) prepared in the 15th, 16th or 17th 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.
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.
From discovering bats to exploring the Milky Way. The Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences works towards the conservation, study and dissemination of science around some very diverse subjects: palaeontology, geology, botany, meteorology and, in particular, zoology. And specifically, one of the most important collections it houses is that of butterflies from around the world and tropical beetles.
Visitors can also discover the permanent exhibition of fossils from the late Triassic site of Montseny (250 million years ago), samples from the mining of minerals at Gualba, Matagalls and Vallcarca, and a herbarium of lichen.
Since 1987, the headquarters of the Museum has been an old modernista tower known as La Tela, or the Casa Pius Anfres, to which a new building of more than 2,000 m² was added in 2012, making it one of the leading museums of natural sciences in Spain. The garden that surrounds the complex has a display of botany and geology from the Vallès Oriental region.
In the new facilities there is a space set aside for the firmament. This is the planetarium, with a dome 6 metres in diameter. Here you can see projections of the night sky from both the past and the future!
In addition to these facilities, the Museum also manages the Nature Room at Can Cabanyes, in the Can Cabanyes Nature Reserve, and the Granollers Meteorological Station on Puig de les Forques.
The visit to the Girona City History Museum starts with a look at the building itself. It is a Gothic mansion (15th century) owned by the Cartellà family, which became the Capuchin convent of Sant Antoni in the 18th century. The cemetery, the cistern and the cloister have been preserved from this time. At the end of the 19th century it was converted into a school and finally, in 1981, it was transformed into a museum. In addition, it houses the remains of the wall of the ancient Gerunda and part of the enclosure of the medieval Cal or Jewish quarter.
In all, a journey through the history of Girona which already indicates what the visitor will find on display inside: a chronological journey through the Roman, medieval, modern and contemporary Girona that is completed with a look at various Catalan traditions such as the cobla and the sardana.
Among the most notable exhibits are: the fragment of the pavement mosaic of Can Pau Birol, from 300 AD; the bronze sculpture of the Angel from the Cathedral of Girona, made in 1764 by Ramon Salvatella; modernista and noucentista works by the sculptors, Fidel Aguilar and Ricard Guinó; and posters of political events from the Transition to Democracy in Girona, among other items.
The Museum also manages the air-raid shelter of the Jardí de la Infància, from the Civil War, and the modernista branch of the Agència Gómez.
