{"id":18515,"date":"2021-01-19T10:48:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T08:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/2021\/01\/19\/historia-colonies-textils-llobregat\/"},"modified":"2021-03-09T12:19:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T10:19:54","slug":"llobregat-textile-colonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/2021\/01\/19\/llobregat-textile-colonies\/","title":{"rendered":"Crumbs of history: the Llobregat textile colonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winter and spring are good season to bring yourself to go on cultural routes in Catalunya<\/strong>. We have plenty of cultural heritage, and most of us know little of it. In general, we are quite familiar with our Romanesque and Middle-Ages legacy, but we also have a very important industrial heritage, particularly in the textile sector. So, today we propose you go on the\u00a0Llobregat textile colonies route<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013as soon as we are allowed to\u2013 to discover this key part of Catalunya\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The Llobregat river houses almost half of all textile colonies in Catalunya. Its waters fed no less than 34 textile colonies, most of them in the Bergued\u00e0 and the Bages regions. As a matter of fact, the stretch of the Llobregat in Baix Bergued\u00e0, from Berga to the limit with Bages, shows the greatest concentration of textiles colonies in Europe (15 colonies in barely 20 km) \u2013yeah, we certainly are a bit prone to exaggeration, we Bergadans. Out of these 34 colonies, some have disappeared (as the Col\u00f2nia Carme de Cercs, currently beneath the Baells reservoir) or are extremely deteriorated due to abandonment; others have been swallowed by the urban growth of nearby towns or they remain as isolated neighbourhoods; some have become modern industrial areas \u2013actually, some of the factories are still working\u2013, and others have been turned into museums. To visit them all requires a time investment that not all of us can do. Thus, while descending down the Llobregat, I\u2019ll tell you about the indispensable ones.<\/p>\n

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Cal Rosal<\/strong>, south of Berga, was the first factory built as\u00a0textile colony<\/em>\u00a0in Catalunya. Today, it\u2019s an active neighbourhood. From the old colony, the convent stands out. Nowadays, it has become a centre for cultural mediation and artistic creation and spreading called\u00a0Konvent<\/strong>. Currently, it\u2019s a contemporary art reference point in the country, with a rich and complete cultural schedule, offering residences for artists, exhibitions, concerts, and different shows.<\/p>\n

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In Gironella, among others, we can find the\u00a0Viladomiu Nou<\/strong>\u00a0colony which stands out because of its\u00a0Torre de l\u2019Amo<\/strong>, the stately mansion that served as second \u2013or third, or fourth\u2013 residence for the Viladomiu family, who owned the colony. Unlike the masters\u2019 towers of most textile colonies, this one is outstandingly well preserved and has become a museum. The ground floor houses some services and administrative agencies, but the first and second floors, fully restored, show a recreation of the old house of the owner. The visit to the Torre de l\u2019Amo de Viladomiu Nou gives us an idea of how the owners of textile colonies used to live.<\/p>\n

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On the Llobregat textile colonies route, stopping at Puig-reig to visit two of its colonies is a must.\u00a0Cal Pons<\/strong>\u00a0is probably the most important colony in Catalunya, from the architectural and urban point of view. It\u2019s a protected architectural ensemble, as it\u2019s been declared\u00a0Cultural Heritage of National Interest<\/strong>. Today it\u2019s an active neighbourhood, but it\u2019s worth visiting. I must highlight the\u00a0two owners\u2019 towers<\/strong>, splendid and surrounded by lovely\u00a0gardens and forests<\/strong>, and the magnificent\u00a0Neogothic church of Sant Josep<\/strong>. The church is open to visitors and three of its spaces have been turned into a museum where you can go deeply into the role of the church in consolidating the industrial colony system. Furthermore, I must mention the\u00a0director\u2019s chalet<\/strong>, less impressing than the towers yet worth seeing, and the\u00a0convent<\/strong>. You really have to take a walk here!<\/p>\n

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However, if you need a better reason to go to Puig-reig, the\u00a0Col\u00f2nia Vidal<\/strong>\u00a0is certainly worth the trip. It was the last one to open in Bergued\u00e0, and the last one closing as well, and it\u2019s important because, unlike many others, it has remained uninhabited and\u00a0all of it has become a museum<\/strong>. A highly recommendable guided tour takes us for a walk through the old colony, which keeps all its heritage, visiting the most significant places as well as the services of the working-class housing scheme. You can even visit the inside of a worker\u2019s home and, if you have visited the Torre de l\u2019Amo de Viladomiu Nou before that, you will experience the difference first-hand. The\u00a0Col\u00f2nia Vidal Museum<\/strong>\u00a0offers a very entertaining way of discovering life and work in a 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century textile colony, as well as learning about the cotton processing using the energy of water. Everybody is delighted with this visit!<\/p>\n

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Already at the lower reaches of the river, in Esparraguera, we can find the\u00a0Col\u00f2nia Sed\u00f3<\/strong>. Nowadays, it\u2019s quite an important industrial estate, but the old factory houses the\u00a0Col\u00f2nia Sed\u00f3 Museum<\/strong>. Its main attraction is the ancient\u00a0turbine,\u00a0<\/strong>the largest one in Spain, but it shows as well, among many other things, a scale model of the colony and a 3D audio-visual presentation telling its story. The visit at the museum shows us the structure and function of the colony, as well as the complex energy system that fed the factory. Moreover, you can take a self-guided tour around the whole place to see its main buildings, specially the\u00a0owner\u2019s house<\/strong>\u00a0and its\u00a0garden<\/strong>, and the\u00a0chimneys<\/strong>. The\u00a0aqueduct<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Broquetes fall<\/strong>\u00a0are also worth seeing. A very good place to spend your morning diving into history.<\/p>\n

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If we keep following the Llobregat down, it\u2019s necessary to stop at Santa Coloma de Cervell\u00f3 to visit the\u00a0Col\u00f2nia G\u00fcell<\/strong>, one of the largest ones on this river, and one of the most important\u00a0modernist ensembles<\/strong>\u00a0in Catalunya. In a nutshell,\u00a0Gaud\u00ed<\/strong>\u00a0oversaw the ensemble\u2019s planimetry, and his influence is obvious in many of the colony\u2019s buildings. Gaud\u00ed himself designed the church although only the crypt \u2013called\u00a0Gaud\u00ed\u2019s Crypt<\/strong>\u2013 was built, since the architectural project was dropped when Eusebi G\u00fcell \u2013yeah, yeah, the very same Eusebi G\u00fcell who commissioned\u00a0Parc G\u00fcell<\/strong>\u2013 died. The design for the Col\u00f2nia G\u00fcell church is probably a\u00a0first sketch of Sagrada Fam\u00edlia<\/strong>, which some elements that are readily identified in the crypt. The crypt itself is a wonderful piece of art, internationally renowned, which fully deserves having been declared\u00a0World Heritage<\/strong>.\u00a0Ca l\u2019Espinal\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Ca l\u2019Ordal<\/strong>\u00a0are spectacular, too, and the\u00a0Casa del Mestre<\/strong>\u00a0is magnificent. If you\u2019re interested in architecture, this one is an indispensable visit.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Llobregat textile colonies route<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0The Llobregat textile colonies route is not a one-day outing neither a weekend trip, maybe. But you can do it in parts, or taking some days off \u2013on Lent, for instance\u2013 to calmly skirt the Llobregat river. It\u2019s a good way to do some\u00a0cultural sightseeing in Catalunya<\/a>\u00a0and it\u2019s fit for all the family. Moreover, it shows us a part of our recent history we tend to overlook, despite its crucial importance in the shaping of the modern Catalunya. It\u2019s a walk through our grandfathers and great-grandfathers social context, and it may help us understand many things close to us. We invite you to dive into the Catalan industrial past while enjoying a\u00a0touristic, artistic, and cultural experience<\/strong>. Come on, join us!<\/p>\n

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Winter and spring are good season to bring yourself to go on cultural routes in Catalunya. We have plenty of cultural heritage, and most of us know little of it. In general, we are quite familiar with our Romanesque and Middle-Ages legacy, but we also have a very important industrial heritage, particularly in the textile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiencies-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pedratour.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}