One more summer, Catalonia Sacra invites you once more to visit the cultural heritage of the Church during the hottest months. Once the hardest stage of the pandemic, which has greatly limited interaction and socialization, has been overcome, this 2022 the chosen ad is “Make friends”. It is an invitation to visit the cultural treasures with religious roots and to discover their values, with the excuse of looking for characters who are part of this heritage, whether they are the main characters, whether they are anecdotal elements that can go unnoticed.
Figures such as the Christ in Majesty of Sant Climent de Taüll; the master builder Arnau Cadell, who is sculpted in one of the capitals of the cloister of the Monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès; the unique trumpet player that Pau Costa sculpted on the baroque altarpiece of Sant Esteve d’Olot; or different dragons that are represented in the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll are some of the “friends” that we find scattered throughout the territory. These characters, and many others found in the churches of the Xarxa de Catalonia Sacra, will be presented during the summer with a fresh and light-hearted language. The aim is to arouse curiosity and invite you to get to know cathedrals, monasteries or sanctuaries all over Catalonia.
The representation of these “friends” in the works of the Cultural Heritage of the Church completes and deepens the meanings of heritage. Their unique and suggestive stories will be a way to capture the curiosity of both people who are already interested in Cultural Heritage of religious roots and those who may find their first entrance to this world.
Guided tours throughout the territory
The other fundamental point of the “Make friends” actions is the invitation to participate in the numerous guided activities that take place in the churches of the Catalonia Sacra Network. After the lifting of the main restrictions imposed to curb COVID-19, this summer more than twenty facilities in the Network are increasing both the diversity of the offer and the number of guided tours. Visiting a church accompanied by a good connoisseur of heritage always allows you to enjoy a deeper, more enjoyable and meaningful experience.
On the website of the Xarxa de Catalonia Sacra you can consult information sheets on about thirty spaces that are open to visitors, with their summer offer of visits guided tours or information about the services available (continuous opening hours, customer service, guide service…). This network is a collaborative table made up of churches of notable heritage value that already have a tourist dynamic, and that work together to make themselves known and thus increase the number of visitors.
“Make friends” can be followed through the website https://www.cataloniasacra.cat, social networks (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) and special Catalonia Sacra newsletters.
10 years of Catalonia Sacra
Catalonia Sacra is a joint initiative of the cultural heritage departments of the ten dioceses in Catalonia (Barcelona, Tarragona, Urgell, Solsona, Vic, Girona, Terrassa, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Lleida and Tortosa) which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022. Created in 2012 with a clear vocation of public service, it has the aim of revitalizing its cultural heritage in a joint way, in order to value it and offer it to society. A work that is committed to cultural dissemination, training, networking and tourism dynamism, and that wants to follow criteria of contemporaneity, professionalism and the search for complicity with the territory for a global understanding of culture.