Margarida Abras, director of the Museum of Badalona, explains us the fragment of the cover of a sarcophagus from the time of the first Christians, and clarify why it is one of her favorite pieces of the collections that the Museum preserves.
Next Monday, May 18th, is International Museum Day (IMD), and to commemorate it, the Museum of Badalona has made some heritage pills that will be shared on the web and social media profiles over the coming days 16th, 17th and 18th.
The exceptional health emergency we live in made us close the doors of the Museum. We are now opening a digital window that will allow us to discover, in a close and direct way, some of the most outstanding pieces of the Museum, and to know both the value of the collection that the Museum preserves and the curiosities and anecdotes that are related to it.
This different way of approaching heritage can never replace the direct experience of visiting the Museum, but it allows us to continue educating, and to invite listening and dialogue. An interesting prescription in times of pandemic, which will surely make us happy for a while.
During this week the Museum of Badalona also participates in the MuseumWeek, a global online event in which cultural institutions and companies from all over the world have a voice, and which consists of sharing every day a piece of the Museum’s collection related to a specific topic.
We hope to see you!
MARBLE SARCOPHAGE FRAGMENT
OLD WOMAN’S HEAD
PORTRAIT OF PAU RODÓN
HERMA OF THE GOD BACCHUS
THE SOCARRATS OF CAN BOFÍ VELL
BAETULO’S OINTMENTS
THE OSCILLUM OF BADALONA
EXHIBITION THE GREAT ILLUSION. THE CINEMA IN BADALONA 1898-1975
From the Museum we are working to provide you with new resources that allow you to make inquiries from home to publications and documents from the Historical Archive and the newspaper archive. In this sense, since February, you can consult all the issues of the magazine El Eco de Badalona, the first local publication in the city. To this resource, which has already been used by more than 2,800 people, is now joined by the digitization of the fortnightly magazine Comarca Expres, which you can find from today in the Online Resources section of this website.
Founded in 1976, this publication covered the political, social, labor and cultural information of the towns of Badalona, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Montgat and Tiana. Although it had a very short life – only 14 issues were published – its reading allows us to reconstruct very well how the first months of the Transition were lived in Badalona and its surroundings. It also stands out because some journalists who later became well known collaborated, such as Enric Juliana, Enric Giralt, Manel Armengol (who became famous as a photographer), Joan Roure and Joan Josep Montornès.
Confinement gives us the opportunity to test our culinary skills so we think it is the best time to share with you one of the most popular recipes among our Roman ancestors: the Epityrum.
Bon appétit!
May 18th is International Museum Day (IMD) and we do not want you to be without the opportunity to continue discovering and enjoying the heritage preserved by the Museum of Badalona.
Therefore, this year although the doors of the Museum are closed, we will open digital windows! On May 16th, 17th and 18th, get your computer or mobile phone ready if you don’t want to miss anything!
We will keep you informed but in the meantime we invite you to enjoy another international digital event in which we participate this week through our social networks, the #Museumweek!
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.
On a day like today 80 years ago in Badalona a demon was burned for the first time. The Cremada was an initiative of the Brotherhood of Sant Anastasi, who also organized it, inspired by an episode narrated by the baron of Maldà in his book Calaix de sastre, where he comments, referring to the saint’s day in Badalona , “That the eve of this party … they set on fire a figure.”
That first Cremada took place in the place known as the excavations, the area of the current Plaça de l’Assemblea de Catalunya where the Museum is now. In 1942 and 1943 it was built on the beach, which became the definitive site in 1955, the year in which the Roman baths were discovered and the first stone of the Museum was laid.
This year 2020 is not the first in which the devil won’t be burned. In 1944, when it was not yet an ingrained tradition, it was replaced by a music festival. It is not clear why, but it is possible that the cause was the lack of funds of the Brotherhood of Sant Anastasi, which had had many expenses. In any case, people protested and the cremada, from the following year, has been uninterrupted until this 2020 the state of emergency resulting from the Covid 19 has prevented it.
We’re sure we’ll burn it again next year!
Figurative aspect of the demon of 1940. Image taken from the book La Cremada del Dimoni de Badalona, by J. Mayné Amat. Museu de Badalona, 2015The 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!
Cast iron and enamelled stove in the shape of a vertical prism, maroon in color. With an upper opening, it has a central body where the fuel is placed and a double draft on the sides that radiated heat. At the bottom, there is a door to clean the waste and two valves to adjust the combustion.
It is a stove of the brand Deville, model Asten. Deville is a French metallurgical company founded in 1846, dedicated to heating products and stoves, still running.
This is a model from before 1940, which arrived into the Museum’s collections by a donation from Francisco Puértolas Brouhon. It came from the restaurant located on the corner of Arnús and Soledat streets, popularly known as La Pansa.
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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.
