Catalan, known in the Valencian Community and Carche as Valencian, is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands. It also has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero. It is also spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".
Modernisme, also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan culture, one of the most predominant cultures within Spain. Nowadays, it is considered a movement based on the cultural revindication of a Catalan identity. Its main form of expression was Modernista architecture, but it also encompassed many other arts, such as painting and sculpture, and especially the design and the decorative arts, which were particularly important, especially in their role as support to architecture. Modernisme was also a literary movement.
Josep Irla i Bosch was a Catalan businessman and politician. He was a deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia and the Spanish Congress in 1932, as an Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya affiliate. He was also the last President of Parliament of Catalonia at the end of Republican Catalan resistance in the Spanish Civil War, before Francisco Franco abolished the Generalitat of Catalonia. He was elected President of the Parliament of Catalonia on 1 October 1938. In office, Irla pushed for cooperation with the allies, Basque nationalists and other anti-Francoist groups, though excluding the communists. He became the President-in-exile of the Generalitat after Lluís Companys was executed. During his time as President-in-exile, he established a Government in exile, and appointed Josep Tarradellas as Conseller en Cap. He resigned as President in 1954.
Catalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The focus of this article is not just the literature of Catalonia, but literature written in Catalan from anywhere, so that it includes writers from Andorra, the Valencian Community, Balearic Islands and other territories where any Catalan variant is spoken.
Santiago Rusiñol i Prats was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan modernisme movement. He created more than a thousand paintings and wrote numerous works in Catalan and Spanish.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 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 its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government. That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995 to 2004. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.
Josep Carner i Puigoriol, was a Spanish poet, journalist, playwright and translator. He was also known as the Prince of Catalan Poets. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.
Eugenio d'Ors Rovira was a Spanish writer, essayist, journalist, philosopher and art critic. He wrote in both Catalan and Spanish, sometimes under the pseudonym of Xènius.
Avinguda Diagonal is the name of one of Barcelona's broadest and most important avenues. It cuts the city in two, diagonally with respect to the grid pattern of the surrounding streets, hence the name.
The Maristes Valldemia school, is located in Mataró, Province of Barcelona - Catalonia (Spain). It is a catholic school run by Marist Brothers, and dedicated to Our Lady the Virgin of the Candle. The ownership is held by Fundació Champagnat, Fundació Privada.
The early modern period in Catalan literature and historiography, while extremely productive for Castilian writers of the Siglo de Oro, has been termed La Decadència, an era of decadence in Catalan literature and history, generally thought to be caused by a general falling into disuse of the vernacular language in cultural contexts and lack of patronage among the nobility, even in lands of the Crown of Aragon. This decadence is thought to accompany the general Castilianization of Spain and overall neglect of the Crown of Aragon's institutions after the dynastic union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon that resulted from the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, a union finalized in 1474.
Rafael Masó i Valentí was one of the most outstanding Catalan architects of the early 20th century. Masó was born in Girona into a refined, conservative, Catholic family of Catalanist ideology. The personality and professional career of the future architect were marked by the cultured atmosphere of his home, created by his father’s literary and artistic interests, as well as his own love of Girona city and its traditions. Masó was an admirer of Antoni Gaudí but, as a student in Barcelona, he joined the group of artists and writers who were to forge Noucentisme, the movement that developed as an alternative to Modernisme. The civic spirit, the Catalanist outlook, and the forward-looking, pro-European ideas prevailing within the new movement inspired the young Masó, who was also to become a distinguished poet, urban planner, politician, and promoter of art and literature.
Montjuïc Cemetery, known in Catalan as Cementiri del Sud-oest or Cementiri de Montjuïc, is located on one of the rocky slopes of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona.
The Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc is an arts society which was founded in Barcelona (Catalonia) in 1893 by Joan Llimona, Josep Llimona, Antoni Utrillo, Alexandre de Riquer, the city councillor Alexandre M. Pons and a group of artists who were followers of bishop Josep Torras i Bages, as a reaction to the anticlerical current present in modernisme and in the Cercle Artístic de Barcelona, which they considered to be frivolous. The society was typified by its vigorous defence of Catholic morals and of family virtue, and its desire to follow in the path of humility that was pursued by the mediaeval guilds.
Casa Trinxet was a building designed by the Catalan Modernisme architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch and built during the years 1902–1904, officially considered completed in 1904. It was located at the crossroads of Carrer Balmes and Carrer del Consell de Cent, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Casa Trinxet was "one of the jewels of Barcelona Modernisme" and one of the buildings of Barcelona's Illa de la Discòrdia, because of competing attitudes among Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch and Antoni Gaudí.
Vell i Nou was a Catalan magazine dedicated to arts that was established in March 1915. Its owner and editor-in-chief was Santiago Segura i Burguess. Later, the magazine was edited by other people, such as Joaquim Folch i Torres, Romà Jori, and Joan Sacs. The format of the magazine was 4 pages measuring 367x270 mm with 3 columns each. It was published weekly until April 10, when it started to appear every fortnight. The editorial office was situated in the Galeries Laietanes (Barcelona). Initially it was printed by F. Borràs, but later changed to other printers such as Oliva de Vilanova.
Josep Maria Ganyet i Cirera is a Catalan computer engineer. Graduated from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1988, he then specialized in artificial intelligence.
Galeries Dalmau was an art gallery in Barcelona, Spain, from 1906 to 1930. The gallery was founded and managed by the Symbolist painter and restorer Josep Dalmau i Rafel. The aim was to promote, import and export avant-garde artistic talent. Dalmau is credited for having launched avant-garde art in Spain.
La Veu de Catalunya was a Catalan newspaper founded by Enric Prat de la Riba that was published in Barcelona from 1 January 1899 to 8 January 1937, with two editions daily.
