New donations to the Museum’s collections

In mid-February, the Museum received a donation of works by Julià Garcia Flaquer (Girona, 1933 – Teruel, 2008) and Esther Estruch Gafarelo (Badalona, ​​1930 – Teruel, 2011). The donation was made by their children Mauricio and Jorge García Estruch

Julià Garcia and Esther Estruch were founding members of the REM group in 1957, an entity created with the aim of transforming the city’s cultural landscape. The group operated for about four years and then its members continued with their respective artistic productions and some explored other disciplines.

Julià Garcia was a professor of Art History and secretary of the School of Applied Arts in Badalona between 1967 and 1969, and later went to Teruel where he was a professor at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Crafts. Esther, also a graduate of the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, ​​was a drawing teacher at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Crafts in Teruel.

This donation helps to complete the Museum’s collections, which previously only contained one work by Esther Estruch.

 

Esther Estruch. Muchachas en la baranda. 1956. Oil on table. 36,5 x 45,5 cm. MB. inv. 20528

 

Julià Garcia. Bloque. 1980-1985. Mixed technique. 192 x 140 cm. MB. inv. 20530

Esther Estruch. Bruixa del càntir. Ceramic and enamel tiles. 79 x 92 cm

The Museum of Badalona will have a new director from March

Joan Francès Farré will be the new director of the Museum of Badalona, after having passed the competition held for this purpose. He will replace Margarida Abras, who is retiring after working at the institution for more than forty years, the last ten as director

Joan Francès,  archaeologist and with a master’s degree in heritage management, has been the director of the Ca n’Oliver Iberian Museum and Village, in Cerdanyola del Vallès, for more than 12 years. He therefore has extensive training and experience in the field of archaeology, heritage and museography, which supports him in the new stage he is about to embark on.

Welcome to the Museum and much success!

 

 

100 years since the first basketball game played in Badalona

On Sunday, March 1st, 1925, exactly one hundred years ago, the first documented basketball game in our city took place in the courtyard of the Ateneu Obrer.

The success of the day was not immediate, but it marked a starting point that continued in 1928 when the Societat Gimnàstica (1926-1932) incorporated this game into its practices. Two years later, already immersed in the Catalan championships organized by the Catalan Federation, the Gimnàstica promoted a basketball tournament for neophytes “in order to spread this beautiful sport” in the city. As a result of this initiative, a group of friends, the Penya Spirit of Badalona, ​​future Club Joventut (1930), set up a team to compete with other teams in the city. These were his first steps in playing basketball

Since then, and with growing interest from citizens, institutions and local entities, Badalona has been practicing, institutionalizing, professionalizing and consolidating a highly symbolic sport for its identity.

On the occasion of the centenary of that first match, the Museum of Badalona, together with the Badalona Historical Studies Center (CEHB), is preparing an exhibition on the process of sports roots that led to the emergence of basketball in Badalona and its evolution until the end of the Civil War, in parallel with other sports disciplines.

As part of this anniversary, we also invite you to go to the Ernest Lluch Square (where the Ateneu courtyard was) on the morning of Saturday, March 1st, to celebrate this centenary and take a tour of significant places in the history of sports in Badalona.

 

Unknown/Museu de Badalona. AI. Col. Josep Gual Lloberas (ref. MB-AI-JGL-113)

150 years of the birth of Joan Amigó Barriga

On this day, 150 years ago, Joan Amigó Barriga (Badalona 1875-1958) was born. An architect who qualified in 1900, he is a prominent representative of the late modernist school, and is the greatest exponent of this style in Badalona, ​​where he worked as municipal architect between 1914 and 1924.

To mark this anniversary, the Museum is preparing an exhibition that will cover his biography, always linked to the social life of Badalona, ​​and his work, which mainly includes residential buildings and factories, some of which are part of the city’s heritage protection catalogue.

The exhibition will take place at the Museum between 15 May and 31 July, and will be accompanied by a publication and various activities.

 

Napoleon/Museu de Badalona. AI. Col. Joan Soler

The new issue of Carrer dels Arbres magazine 2024 available online

The new issue of the magazine of the Museum of Badalona, Carrer dels Arbres, revista digital d’història i patrimoni de Badalona, corresponding to the year 2024, is now available on our website.

We hope the articles that includes will be of your interest.

Download magazine

 

 

Christmas opening hours – 2024

During the Christmas holidays, the Museum will be closed on Tuesday 24th (afternoon), Wednesday 25th, Thursday 26th, Tuesday 31st December (afternoon), Wednesday 1st, Saturday 4th (afternoon) and Sunday 5th January.

The Christmas holidays will also affect the opening hours of the Historical Archive of the City of Badalona (AHBDN), which will be closed the week of 23rd to 29th December 2024 and Wednesday 1st January 2025.

 

New digital resource to know the Roman city of Baetulo

The Museum of Badalona presents a virtual tour on the Roman Baths-Decumanus space, the Roman archaeological site that is preserved in the basement of the building, a resource that will allow interested people to walk, from their computer or mobile phone, through the Roman baths-Decumanus space and the permanent exhibition “Baetulo Roman City”.

This is a different way of touring the nearly 3,500 m2 of museum site, a unique opportunity both to get to know different points of the space and to appreciate certain details, also of some pieces, that go unnoticed in a conventional visit.

The visit, available in Catalan, Spanish and English, incorporates digital labels with additional information about different points and areas of the route and a large number of the pieces on display. The project therefore allows the cultural heritage of Badalona from the Roman period to be made available to everyone, without geographical or linguistic limitations.

We now present this virtual tour to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the sculpture of the goddess Venus -which can be seen in the Museum- by the Badalona archaeologist Joaquim Font i Cussó. We hope you enjoy this new resource as we continue working to make our city’s rich heritage known.

Would you like to join us in this tour?

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE VIRTUAL TOUR FROM YOUR BROWSER

 

Choral Society and Mutual Aid Alba

The Choral society and Mutual Aid Alba of Badalona, the first created in Badalona, ​​was inaugurated in 1850. It was headquartered at the current number 36 of Francesc Layret’s street. Like most choral societies, and as its name suggests, it was a mutual aid organization, a mutual entity to which members contributed a monthly amount that served to cover medical expenses or lack of work when the occasion required it.

On the first floor of the building there was a large room where singing and lyrical sessions were scheduled, as well as theatrical activities.

Although it no longer had any activities, the mutual society lasted well into the 21st century.

 

 

Banner of the Choral Society and Mutual Aid Alba

Membership list: centenary of the Choral society and Mutual Aid Alba

 

 

Societat Cultural l’Oliva of Canyet

The Oliva Cultural Society (Societat Coral l’Oliva) of Canyet was founded in 1901 as an entity intended to provide new leisure options for the inhabitants of the neighborhood. Its founders were members of the Unió Society – a cultural entity founded around 1888, based in a place called El Sot – which they decided to leave due to differences with other members.

In 1905, Oliva already had its own choral section, La Cañetense, founded following the precepts of Maestro Clavé, whose testimony would be collected, from 1921, by the Oliva Art and Culture Choir Section. The performances of this choir, popularly known as the Canyet Choir, immediately became an indispensable component of all the neighborhood’s festivals.

The Societat Coral l’Oliva also became a prominent center of theatrical activity. In 1925, the Drama Section of the organization was created, which would bring together a good number of fans from the neighborhood and which would gradually consolidate over the years, to the point of having the collaboration of the painter and set designer Antoni Ros i Güell and such renowned actors from Badalona as Enric Borràs or Joaquim Grífol.

The Museum preserves the organization’s two banners in its collections.

 

Banner of the Oliva de Canyet Cultural Society
First quarter of the 20th century
Velvet, embroidery and trimmings
114 x 72 cm
Inv. MB 10411

 

Flag of the Oliva de Canyet Cultural Society
1949
Cotton fabric
123 x 184 cm
Inv. MB 12483

The Museum of Badalona participates in the permanent exhibition of the new VINSEUM, Museum of the Wine Cultures of Catalonia

The new VINSEUM, the Museum of the Wine Cultures of Catalonia, has recently been inaugurated in Vilafranca del Penedès, a proposal born with the vocation to become a point of reference on the history and evolution of the vineyard and the came to our country.

Badalona’s contribution could not be missing in this proposal, given the importance that wine had in our population, already in Roman times. Thus, as a result of the collaboration between the two institutions, up to 20 Roman and modern pieces from our collections have been loaned, which have been incorporated into the new center’s permanent exhibition museum

Among the items ceded from the Roman period, an amphora rim of the Pascual 1 shape stands out, with the stamp M.PORCI -short for Marcus Porcius-, belonging to the best-known wine producer of ancient Baetulo, two glasses and two amphorisks that seem to be tied to the necks of the amphorae in order to be able to do the corresponding tasting of the wine they contained.

As for the modern and contemporary era, several molds for making glass cups from the old Cristall de Badalona factory that was active from 1866 to 2014 have been left, as well as objects related to the manufacture of this material (blow reeds, a pitchfork, modeling tongs, glass paste…).

We invite you to delve deeper into this journey into the history of wine that comes to us from Vilafranca del Penedès and we challenge you to find our pieces!