The Biblioteca Museu VÃctor Balaguer (VÃctor Balaguer Museum & Library) is located in Vilanova i la Geltrú, province of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
,
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
, Spain and was founded in 1884 by VÃctor Balaguer so as to thank the city for its support during his politician career. Since 2000 the museum is part of the
National Art Museum of Catalonia
The (; ), abbreviated as MNAC (), is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for it ...
and the library is part of the
National Library of Catalonia
The Library of Catalonia (, ) is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the ...
library
A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
and
museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
, which was unusual at that time. The building is
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
-shaped, and it has neo-Egyptian and neo-Greek ornamental elements, distinctive details of public architecture in Catalonia at the end of the 19th century, just before the Modernisme arrived.
On the facade of the building we can find the sculptures of the archbishop Francesc Armanyà and the poet Manuel de Cabanyes, who were relevant figures of Vilanova at the 19th century. On top of the main entrance it can be read the headword Surge et Ambula (stand up and walk in Latin).
It is also relevant the 19th century garden that surrounds the building. Here we can find the so-called Santa Teresa House, the place where VÃctor Balaguer lived during his stays in Vilanova.
Over the years the building has undergone several alterations and changes, but in the last one they choose recovering the original style designed by Granell and therefore recovering the natural light inside the halls.
Library
It was conceived to make known, through objects and documents of all kinds, the entirety of the knowledge. His founder contributed with books, magazines and other documents. The founder's intention was to open it to any citizen "without any kind of economic or social exclusion" it was the precedent of Catalan public libraries.
The collection's classification and layout are the result of research by the librarian and printer Joan Oliva i Milà , who studied other European libraries so as to see which the best organization for the new centre was. In that moment, it stressed a big table where the readers had at his disposal journals and magazines from different places that allowed them always being informed.
Nowadays, there are 50.000 books and almost 2.000 daily publications from between 18th and 19th century. Moreover, there also are around 50.000 letters and several literary and political manuscripts from VÃctor Balaguer. All of this turns it into one of the richest bibliographic collections of the 19th century in
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
As the ancient collectors of the 19th century, the collection is divided into several subcollections because of Balaguer's multidisciplinary interest. Although the majority of the collection was given by Balaguer, the museum has incorporated and enriched his collections through the years with several donations and acquisitions. As of 2023, the museum's artistic holdings consist of 10,500 different objects, with an emphasis on painting and sculpture of the 19th century. Since the year of its foundation, the
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...
has deposited several works that are changed periodically. This deposit is often made up of Castilian, Andalusian and Valencian paintings from between the 16th and the 18th century, there are works from well-known artists such as
among others. The museum also preserves the municipal Catalan painting collection of the 19th century that until 1996 was shown at Castell de la Geltrú.
Art gallery
19th century painting and sculpture
In the arts gallery hall there is one of the best Catalan painting collections of the 19th century, with works from
Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusi̱ol i Prats (, ; Barcelona 25 February 1861 РAranjuez 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan '' modernisme'' movement. He created more than ...
Joaquim Vayreda
Joaquim Vayreda i Vila (23 May 1843 – 31 October 1894) was a Spanish landscape painter. He was originally influenced by the Barbizon school, but later became one of the founders of the Olot school.
Biography
Vayreda was born in Girona, Sp ...
,
Ramon Martà Alsina
Ramón Martà i Alsina (10 August 1826, Barcelona - 21 December 1894, Barcelona) was a Spanish painter in the Realistic style.
Biography
He was born to the humble family of a city official and was orphaned at the age of eight.Pau Carbonell and Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer among others. It basically shows the founder's original collection and paintings donated by the own artists. The works are shown in chronological order so as to evoke Roma's school about Catalan art in the 19th century.Catà leg informatiu del museu In the hall there also is the Monteleon's park defense from
JoaquÃn Sorolla
JoaquÃn Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by ...
, known popularly as the Second of May Prado's property.
Baroque painting
In the Prado hall there is an important collection of baroque painting coming from the
Museo del Prado
The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of Art of Europe, European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th ce ...
Luca Giordano
Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain.
Early l ...
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...
, etc.
Castilian and Andalusian schools are more represented here than the Flemish and the Italian. The paintings are distributed in four big thematic areas: religious painting, portrait, mythology and nature, including still life.
20th century painting and sculpture
At the second floor halls there are paintings and sculptures of the main artists of the first half of the 20th century such as
Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusi̱ol i Prats (, ; Barcelona 25 February 1861 РAranjuez 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan '' modernisme'' movement. He created more than ...
Isidre Nonell
Isidre Nonell i Monturiol (30 November 1872 – 21 February 1911) was a Spanish artist known for his expressive portrayal of socially marginalized individuals in late 19th-century Barcelona. He is considered to belong to the post- Modernista gene ...
... and sculptures from Àngel Ferrant and Andreu Alfaro among others. The majority of this collection works come from the first
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art
The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (, , MACBA, ) is a contemporary art museum situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval neighborhood, Ciutat Vella district, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The museum opened to the public on 28 Novem ...
founded in 1963 so as to prevent the dispersion of this important collection, considered as the most complete informalist arts collection in Catalonia.
There is a temporary show hall too.
Archaeology and ethnography
Egyptian collection
There is an Egyptian hall where there can be found authentic objects from the
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
. It stresses for its singularity the little
mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
of a five years old kid called Nesi, one of the five unique mummies that are nowadays preserved in Catalan museums.
The museum's Egyptian collection was the first one in Catalonia and was donated in 1886 by Eduard Toda i Güell a diplomatic figure, writer and a close collaborator with VÃctor Balaguer in the
Renaixença
The ''Renaixença'' (; also written ''Renaixensa'' before spelling standardisation), or Catalan Renaissance, was a romantic revivalist movement in Catalan language and culture through the mid 19th century, akin to the Galician '' Rexurdimento ...
movement. Some of the pieces of the collection come from Sennedjem's tomb in
Deir el-Medina
Deir el-Medina (), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of Egypt (ca. 1550–1080 BC). ...
(west Thebes) where Eduard Toda collaborated.
Pre-Columbian collection
The pre-Columbian collection groups objects from the most significant zones of
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
. Most of the pieces of the collection were donated by diplomatic figures and distinguished personalities who travelled to the zone and sometimes took part of archaeological excavations. One of the people who contributed to enlarge the collection was Wilson's Baroness Emilia Serrano (1834–1922). The pre Columbian objects in Catalonia appeared in the 19th century when sailors and dealers, known as ''
Americas
The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
.
Philippine collection
The collection is made up of objects from daily life, war and religious coming from international expositions such as the Anthropological Sciences Contest of Paris in 1878 or the Philippine General Exposition of the Palacio de Cristal del Retiro of Madrid in 1887.
Oriental collection
The Oriental collection is made of three big donations from Eduard Toda, Francesc Abellá and Juan Mencarini. All of them had a good relationship with VÃctor Balaguer. This collection stresses the numismatic collection donated by Juan Mencarini. It is made up of his direct purchase in China and they are represented almost all de dynasties of the Chinese imperial past. It was donated in 1888.
Archaeological collection
The archaeological collection is made of two big blocks: the foundational donations coming from different parts of the world; and the ones coming from local excavations especially from Garraf,
Alt Penedès
Alt Penedès () is a comarca (county) in the Penedès region, in Catalonia, Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarif ...
and Baix Penedès. The main sites represented are Darró, Solicrup, Masia Nova, Cova Verda and Cova de Can SadurnÃ.
In the foundational donations block there are two groups: 1) donations when VÃctor Balaguer was alive, 2) donations after his death until 1939. In the excavations block there are 3 groups: 1) foundational excavations until 1939, 2) excavations carried out by the Studies Centre of the Library VÃctor Balaguer (1951–1982) and 3) excavations deposited at the Museum Balaguer until now.
Decorative arts collection
This collection is made up of other smaller collections (glass, ceramics and metal) that give a full image of VÃctor Balaguer's collecting passion. Little but splendid samples that have exceptional objects such as a Mozarabic mortar from the 12th century.
Children's corner
In December 2010 the Children's Corner was inaugurated. It is a new permanent space in the museum addressed to children, here they can draw and express in an artistic level.
Tactile look
The museum also has a multisensorial module called "Tactile Look", a tactile interpretation space addressed to everybody but especially adapted and designed for those visitors that have visual difficulties, blindness or to disabled people.
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Library bulletin
The Victor Balaguer Library Museum's bulletin (ISSN 0212-6168) is an annual informative publication edited by the Library Museum VÃctor Balaguer's Friends' Association. It collects information related with the bibliographic and artistic collection from Balaguer's Institution. It talks about the library's search and the activities carried out during the previous year at the Institution. It is available on the website raco.cat.