Reading: a safe harbour
10 days to enjoy books on the Moll de Bosch i Alsina
From 8 to 17 September 2023, we celebrated a major cultural event in Catalonia on the Moll de Bosch i Alsina in Barcelona — Catalan Book Week celebrates books in the Catalan language and offers a valuable opportunity for the publishing sector to engage with its readers. The event is also a significant highlight on the country's cultural calendar, featuring a comprehensive program that includes the launch of new publications for the autumn season.
Families represent one of the most visible audiences at the event, as young and old alike can enjoy discovering new books together. They can also enjoy a series of workshops centred around the Port of Barcelona, where children can paint ships and pirate faces or play with the words of poet Joan Salvat-Papasseit.
Activities like these provide an excellent cultural and educational experience while, at the same time, making the Port of Barcelona more accessible to the public and helping them become more familiar with it.
Piano in the Port
The main objective of the prestigious Maria Canals International Music Competition, held annually in Barcelona, is to support young musicians from around the world who aspire to pursue a professional career in music.
One of the most successful activities of the OFF Competition, notable for its visibility during the competition and throughout the year, is called “Maria Canals porta cua”. The initiative involves placing grand pianos in public spaces and cultural venues and allowing both experienced players and those who have never had the chance to play before to engage with the instrument.
On 11 March 2023, the Port of Barcelona's Port Vell joined the project, filling the Portal de la Pau with music and entertainment all day long.
Port Vell: the transformation from industrial port to historical port
Between 17 November and 2 December 2022, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona organised four roundtables on the evolution of the Port Vell under the title, Port Vell: the transformation from industrial port to historic port.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Port of Barcelona was conceptually divided into three distinct areas: the city port, the commercial port, and the logistical port. This division led to the development of the Port Vell and the ZAL, which serves as the logistics platform for the Port of Barcelona. The transformation of part of the industrial port into a city port was one of the first in the world.
In the different sessions, discussions were held with some of the key people involved in that transformation, highlighting the complexity of implementing a project that has transformed the physiognomy of the port and the city and changed how citizens view and relate to the sea.
Presentation on The 250th anniversary of the Torre del Rellotge
On 3 November 2022, as part of a lecture series organised by the Industrial Heritage Forum, the engineer Xavier Auroux Poblador gave a presentation titled "The 250th anniversary of the Torre del Rellotge" the result of a collaboration with the Port of Barcelona’s Department of Cultural Heritage.
The presentation emphasised the historical significance of this unique building, which is one of the most important examples of port heritage. Originally inaugurated as a lighthouse in 1772, the development of the Port of Barcelona eventually rendered it obsolete as a maritime beacon, and when a four-dial clock was installed in place of the lantern, it was transformed into the iconic clock tower that has become a much-loved symbol of the Barceloneta district.
The lecture also delved into the history of the manufacture of clocks for towers and buildings.
Fisherman for a day
To commemorate the day of the Virgin of Carmel and the Fishermen's Festival on 16 July, the Port of Barcelona and the Maritime Museum of Barcelona (MMB) organised an activity to promote the fishing sector and highlight the city's fishing heritage and tradition.
Visitors were able to experience a day in the life of a fisherman from the Port of Barcelona through a 360° virtual reality presentation and a guided tour of the exhibition called "When I was a little girl, I always went down to the dock". The experience was followed by a guided tour of the exhibition led by its curators and members of the Cap a Mar Association, an organisation created by fishing families from the Barceloneta neighbourhood.
The activity was carried out within the framework of the Port of Barcelona's cultural project which aims to strengthen its relationship with the city.
Torre del Rellotge
From lighthouse to clock tower
The construction of Barcelona's port infrastructure began around 1477. Over the course of three centuries, the port slowly grew with the addition of various constructions until in 1772, the growth in maritime traffic was such that the port's boundaries had to be extended, and a tower was built as a lighthouse at the end of the western arm of the dock, now the called the Moll de Pescadors.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the constant expansion of port infrastructure meant that the 1772 lighthouse could no longer serve its purpose of guiding ships safely into the harbour, leading to calls for it to be demolished. Eventually, in 1912, the lighthouse chamber was replaced by a large clock with four dials, transforming it into what is now popularly known as the Torre del Rellotge.
In 2022, the tower celebrated its 250th anniversary with the organisation of various activities and events to commemorate the milestone, including the restoration of the antique clock.
Presentation on the Llobregat Lighthouse
The presentation The Llobregat Lighthouse: a building with history formed part of the lecture series organised by the Industrial Heritage Forum.
On 30 November 2020, Mònica Gutiérrez, head of the Port of Barcelona's Department of Cultural Heritage, participated in the series by delivering a presentation on one of the Port Authority's most iconic structures and a building with both technical and socio-cultural relevance: the Llobregat Lighthouse.
Lighthouses, in all their diverse architectural shapes and styles, have long guided various types of vessels, serving as an essential bastion of maritime navigation and trade since their inception.
The aim of the presentation was to raise public awareness of the importance of the Port of Barcelona's little-known heritage buildings, and the activity also formed part of the Port i Ciutat cultural project.
Why?
In November 2020, the Port of Barcelona organised an activity to commemorate World Children's Rights Day. This activity benefited from the involvement of artist Carme Solé Vendrell, creator of the Why? project, and collaboration from the Maritime Museum of Barcelona.
Why? is an emotive project that appeals directly to the public's awareness of the injustices faced by many children around the world and calls, through art, for their rights to be respected. It was very well received by the public.
This collaborative creative endeavour resulted in the Mural for Children's Rights, which features drawings submitted by children aged 3 to 12 and a contribution from the artist herself, drawn live outside the WTCB.
The mural has been hung on the façade of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, where it can be seen by everyone who passes.
International Day for World Cultural and Natural Heritage 2020
On 16 November 1972, the Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage was signed in Paris, laying the foundations for the declaration of protected world heritage sites.
The Port of Barcelona is committed to joining forces in order to highlight the value of maritime heritage and culture. The Department of Cultural Heritage is responsible for managing the collection of movable assets owned by the Barcelona Port Authority and those it has on loan. Additionally, the department is tasked with promoting these assets to the public.
In this video, which was made to commemorate International Heritage Day, we outline the department's objectives and take a look at the process of restoring one of the collection's most significant paintings: Pescadors treballant a la llum de la lluna (Fishermen at Work by the Light of the Moon), by Segundo Matilla, from 1900. The painting was restored in 2013 at the Catalan Centre for the Restoration of Movable Assets.
The Llobregat Lighthouse
History of the Llobregat Lighthouse
To celebrate the first World Marine Aids to Navigation Day, the Port of Barcelona inaugurated a permanent exhibition in the renovated Llobregat Lighthouse and initiated a series of visits for Port of Barcelona employees, members of the port community and residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Mindful of the social significance of this lighthouse, a video was made about its lived history.
The Llobregat Lighthouse, popularly known as "la Farola", was designed by engineer Simó Ferrer and lit for the first time on 1 March 1852.
The uniquely designed original building has since been enlarged by one storey, and the site where it stands was previously occupied by an early tower. It has a slightly truncated pyramid shape with a square cross-section. The entire structure rests on a large 6.40 m high base, a feature that gives this lighthouse its unquestionable architectural value.
Conference on the Port of Barcelona’s Cultural Heritage
The 11th conference on Port Heritage and Port-Related Industries was held within the framework of the conferences organised by the Catalan Association of the Museum of Science and Technology and Industrial Archaeology (AMCTAIC).
The head of the Port of Barcelona's Department of Cultural Heritage, Mònica Gutiérrez, gave a presentation on the importance of maritime cultural heritage as a testimony to history and underlined the Port of Barcelona's commitment to promoting its dissemination through the Port i Ciutat (Port and City) cultural project that is currently being implemented.
The event took place at the Museum of the Port of Tarragona from 21 to 23 November 2019 and was attended by members of the public with links to the maritime and port sector, as well as representatives from AMCTAIC, the Government of Catalonia, and the ports of Tarragona and Barcelona, among others.