Archive for category: General

We are very sorry to inform you of the sudden loss of Susanna del Arca Gracia, a member of the Historical Reenactment group, a collaborator of the Museum and a good friend.

Her passage through the Historical Reenactment Group, of which she was still a part, allowed us to live with her very good moments of work, travel and experiences. She quickly earned her place in the group and enriched us with her knowledge, her serene and affable language, and her versatility, which made her able to speak about ancient documents, Roman writing or, even, of the irreverent love.

Her energy, enthusiasm and desire to grow and get knowledge made her tireless. She was always willing to collaborate, despite the difficulties, the accumulation of work or the distance. With an optimistic and vital look, and an intelligent and sharp sense of humor, she had a permanent, commanding smile that we will always remember.

May the earth rest lightly on you.

 

 

The days of May are usually the most intense in festive activities, concerts, fairs and street events, but this year 2020 we will have to celebrate the May Fests in a very different way than we are used to.

This gallery is a synthesis of the act of the Cremada del Dimoni from the fifties to 1982: from the first burnings in the area of ​​Clos de la Torre (around the current square of the Assembly of Catalonia ) to those already made on the beach, in front of the monument to Roca i Pi.  From the cremada understood as a popular activity of the festivities of Sant Anastasi, patron saint of Badalona, ​​to the truly central event of the May Fests, consolidated as the most important festive cycle in the city.

In another order of things, we would like to ask your attention about how working from home has conditioned us. We haven’t been able to show different pictures that we don’t have yet digitized and we will need, in some cases, to look for the name of the author of the image. We apologize and thank you for your understanding.

Have fun, celebrate the May Fests anyway, and do your Cremada del Dimoni without lighting a fire!

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On a day like today, 75 years ago, Allied troops – specifically the United States Army – liberated the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, which the Nazis had set up in 1938. Many Spanish Republicans were deported to this camp. They had had to go into exile as a result of Franco’s victory in the Civil War and, once in France or other European countries, they were immersed in World War II.

In Mauthausen-Gusen, among many other deportees, 40 people from Badalona died. Josep Borràs Lluch, also from Badalona, ​​who managed to survive, wrote a very interesting book about the concentration camp, which was published in France, where he had gone into exile, and in French, in 1989. The Museum of Badalona is working on publishing of the Catalan version of this book, which should have been presented today, although it has not been possible due to the state of emergency we are in as a result of Covid 19, but which will appear later . The book is published thanks to the collaboration of Frederic Borràs, the author’s son; of the Amical Mauthausen, and more specifically of the historian Rosa Toran -linked to this entity-, who is in charge of the prologue; and Joan Villarroya, professor of contemporary history at the UB and former director of the Museum, who provides a text about Josep Borràs and the other deportees from Badalona.

Pictures: Josep Borràs. Courtesy of Frederic Borràs.

 

 

 

 

The popular hymn to the Virgin of Montserrat, the Virolai, with lyrics by the poet Jacint Verdaguer and music by Josep Rodoreda, created on the occasion of the festivities of the Millennium of Montserrat, began to become popular during the first years of the 20th century, beyond its religious aspect, as a patriotic anthem for different sectors of Catalan society. This was the song that accompanies the proclamation of the Catalan State by Lluís Companys on October 6th, 1934, within the framework of the Second Republic. And it was also the song that the members of the republican army spontaneously sang when they crossed the Pyrenees in the retreating . The writer and editor Joan Sales masterfully describes it in his work Uncertain Glory:

“How could I ever forget that moment, when we reached the ridge of the Pyrenees and looked into the distance the great plain of towns and cities that smoked, like a goodbye to the crucified homeland we were about to leave we sang the Virolai! Everyone, even the anarchists … “.

Years later, in 1948, when Joan Sales and his family returned to Catalonia, the Virolai continued to act as a national anthem, given the Franco regime’s ban on Els Segadors. In that devastated country, Sales would carry out a huge publishing task, discovering fundamental authors for Catalan literature such as Màrius Torres, Llorenç Villalonga and Mercè Rodoreda, while his wife, also the writer and editor Núria Folch i Pi, would find in our city, Badalona, the right place ​​where developing her work as a teacher, working in two prominent schools, as the Minguella School and the Albéniz Institute.

 

Montserrat. Antoni Ros i Güell. Inv. MB 6671