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AIA Spring Tour May 12th - 18th 2025 Catalonia 6 nights, full-board from £1,270 Discount for AIA members Book online now |
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Catalonia is a part of Spain, but could easily have slipped out of it in the C17 and become a sovereign country, as did Portugal.
Memory of the glory of the Medieval empire that Barcelona controlled in the western Mediterranean has conditioned Catalan politics since the early-modern period (even today, a pro-independence party is part of the coalition in the new Catalan government, the Generalitat), but along with a distinct language (a blend of Spanish and French) there has always been a characteristic attitude to work in Catalonia more akin to northern than southern Europe.
This is reflected in the history of its commercial and industrial development.
Catalonia has traditionally viewed the rest of Spain as a market for its agricultural and textile products, while chafing over the vagaries of Spain’s industrial policies, largely dictated from Madrid.
Catalonia tends to value most its heritage that distinguishes it from the rest of Spain. So the Romanesque and Gothic architecture, largely built while the rest of the Peninsular was under Arabic Muslim control, is treasured. Since the return of Catalan autonomy from 1979, the industrial heritage has been also valued, since it was also a distinct experience to most of Spain during the C19 and most of the C20. The tour is all-inclusive: All visits and guiding, transport in Spain, lunches (except Tuesday), dinners, bed & breakfast. The tour starts at our hotel in Barcelona. If there is sufficient interest, optional coach transfers will be provided from the airport to our hotel at the start and returning to the airport at the end of the tour. Non-AIA members are most welcome but paid-up members of the AIA at the time of the tour enjoy a £30 discount per booking, one of the many benefits of becoming a member. With this discount and if you take advantage of the new online-only AIA membership, you can actually save money by joining. Join the AIA now Huge thanks are due to James Douet who has devised the itinerary for the tour and made arrangements for all the visits. James is an experienced British historian who has been living in Barcelona for 30 years. He will also be with us each day to help and guide us through the tour. | |
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Some of the visits are still subject to confirmation. We cannot at this time guarantee that they will all be included but we will make every effort to do so or find suitable alternatives.
The order of visits may also change. Changes to the itinerary will be passed on to you before the final invoice is presented. All prices are quoted in Pounds Sterling (GBP) whilst most of the costs are in Euros (EUR). Changes to exchange rates, accommodation, transport costs or taxes may necessitate a price change. | |
| ITINERARY | |
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Monday 12th May Members of the group make their own way to our hotel in Barcelona. Optional coach transfer from the airport, time to be confirmed 19:00 Dinner at our hotel | |
| Tuesday 13th May | |
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In the morning we will start with an overview of the city from
Montjuic and then visit the Maritime Museum, the
medieval shipbuilding sheds and the shipyard in the area of the old port, where the ships of the Catalan-Aragonese fleet where constructed.
Though there were similar buildings around the Mediterranean this is the only one that has survived, and is a unique example of Gothic industrial architecture. |
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After a break for lunch (own expense), we will see the Estació de França train shed
- the terminus for Spain’s first main line to Barcelona opened in 1848.
Then we will walk to the Parc de la Ciutadella to see the buildings from the 1888 International Exhibition, followed by the Born iron-framed market - the new Central Market built in 1876, which is the most important example in Catalonia of iron construction and architecture. We will finish the day at the Santa Maria del Mar church built between 1329 and 1383 at the height of the kingdom of Catalonia's maritime and mercantile pre-eminence where you will be free to explore the church, crypt and bell towers. |
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Dinner and overnight at our hotel. |
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| Wednesday 14th May | |
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In the morning we will enjoy a guided visit to the Cornellà steam pumping station.
The station was built by the Societat General d’Aigües de Barcelona and designed by the architect Josep Amargós i Samaranch in 1905 to improve the supply of drinking water to Barcelona.
The station contains seven horizontal engines and a boiler.
The engines include four horizontal tandem compound drop-valve engines driving DC Generators, by the Societé Lyonaise.
Before lunch we will have time to visit the Freixenet winery and underground cellars and also taste some of the product! After lunch (included) we will visit Colònia Güell and Gaudí crypt. The Colònia Güell was one of the most ambitious of the industrial settlements established in Catalonia during the 19th century, and which characterize the industrialization of the region. |
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Dinner and overnight at our hotel. |
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| Thursday 15th May | |
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In the morning we will visit the Can Marfà knitting textiles museum and machinery collection where you will be free to explore the history of the knitting industry - the industrial activity that brought uniqueness and identity to the city.
After lunch (included) we will have a guided tour of the Casa de les Aigües steam pumping station, Montcada where we can see two vertical steam engines made by the Barcelona company of (Scottish) Alexander Bros. which pumped 20,000 m3 a day. |
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Afterwards we can see the Ca l’Aranyó textile mill, now part of the Pompeu Fabra University. The fireproof iron frame of the spinning shed was purchased, with all the textile machinery, from Leeds in 1880.
Finally we will see the Torre Glories which is a 2012 skyscraper designed by French architect Jean Nouvel to fix Barcelona’s innovation district known as 22@. The regeneration project incorporated many re-cycled industrial spaces. From the gallery at the top of the tower we can have an unmatched view over the Sagrada Familia, the city and the whole territory of Barcelona to finish up the day. |
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| Dinner and overnight at our hotel. | |
| Friday 16th May | |
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In the morning we will travel north from the city to join the
Tren del Ciment, a 30 minute ride along the former workers’ railway up the valley to the cement works and railway workshops. There we can see the
Clot del Moro, the ruins of Modernista cement works, the first cement works with modern rotary kilns in Catalonia which was built in this inaccessible valley between 1901 and 1904 by Eusebi Güell, assisted by American technicians from Allis Chalmers and the Pelton Water Wheel company.
After lunch (included) we will visit the Cercs coal mine museum and miners’ settlement. Coal was mined in this area for copper and iron forges from the late C18. |
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If time allows, we can take a look at Baells Hydroelectric Dam which extends to 112m high and describes a 302m curve across the valley.. Dinner and overnight at our hotel. |
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| Saturday 17th May | |
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In the morning we will visit the Colònia Sedó, one of the largest of the Catalan rural industrial settlements. Built between 1847 and 1850, it took advantage of an existing water power site of an old flour mill on the Llobregat river.
At its peak, 3,000 people worked here and 1,800 lived in the colony producing corduroy - the denim of the nineteenth century. The Colònia included spinning and weaving mills, bleaching works, whose steam engine has the emblematic spiral brick chimney, warehouses, workers' housing and much more. |
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After lunch (included) in a converted electricity generating station, you will be free to explore the
Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya. The mNACTEC represents the history of the Catalonian process of industrialization and is the national museum of science and technology. Catalonia was exceptional in Spain, and almost unique in Southern Europe, for being among the first regions to industrialize in the early 19th century. The museum is the headquarters of the Sistema del Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya, a network of about twenty specialized industrial sites. The home of the museum is the Vapor Aymerich, Amat i Jover, a woollen textile mill constructed in 1907-08.
Finally we will take a walk through industrial and Moderniste Terrassa, the former ‘City of Smoke’. The Medieval town of Terrassa grew fast during the second half of the C19 with the construction of steam mills specializing in woollen textiles. Farewell group dinner including beer, wine & soft drinks at the Estacio França railway station. Overnight at our hotel. |
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| Sunday | |
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The tour ends after breakfast at our hotel. Optional coach transfer to the airport. Time to be confirmed. |
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| ACCOMMODATION | |
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Our hotel is :
Hotel SB Win, Carrer de Joana Raspall, 45, 08980 Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona Phone: +34 930 353115 Email: win@sbhotels.es Web: https://www.hotelsbwin.com/en/ The hotel is situated in the south western suburbs of the city, c15 km from the airport by road, not our first choice of location but hotels nearer the city centre were unavailable or too highly priced for our budget. |
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| TRANSPORT | |
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The tour starts on the Monday evening and ends after breakfast on the Sunday morning at our Barcelona hotel.
We leave you to make your own travel arrangements to and from Barcelona to suit your own convenience and use of alternative departure points. Travel during the tour will be by luxury, air-conditioned coach. Detailed joining instructions will be supplied about two weeks before the start of the tour. The airport transfers will only run if there is sufficient demand. All site visits will include some walking which may include stairs. In Barcelona city centre we will be walking between some sites on foot. | |
| PASSPORTS, VISAS & IMMIGRATION | |
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You must ensure that you have a valid passport for travel in the European Union (and possibly visas for Non-EU citizens).
For UK residents, the Global Health Insurance Card (UK GHIC) replaces the former European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). If you have an EHIC which is still in date you may use it. If yours has expired then you should apply for a GHIC here: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/ They are free and usually come quite quickly. |
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| COST | |
The cost of the trip is
£1,270 per person sharing with a single supplement
£350. The supplement represents the additional cost applied by the hotel for single occupation of a double room. The cost includes:
Inflation has hit the cost of these tours, the increase in prices for hotel accommodation, meals and the rate of city taxes has surprised us. Nevertheless, for this unique and very full itinerary we believe the price represents excellent value for money and compares very well with other specialist tour operators. Paid-up members of the AIA at the time of the tour enjoy a £30 discount per booking. (So you can book now and claim the discount as long as you join before the tour). The discount will be calculated on your invoice when it is issued. Apart from the discount available on Heritage of Industry tours AIA members enjoy a range of benefits which are shown on the Membership page of the AIA website where you can also find full details of how to join: https://industrial-archaeology.org/membership/ An AIA member joining this tour will already have recouped 66% of the standard AIA membership fee and more than the online-only membership but, more importantly, the support members give enables the AIA to continue its work. | |
| CANCELLATION CHARGES, HEALTH & INSURANCE | |
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Please note that cancellation charges will apply from
17th March 2025 and, although these will be modified to the extent that costs are not actually incurred, you are strongly advised to insure against the need to cancel and to cover medical treatment and repatriation charges in the event of illness etc.
Participants who do not have travel insurance must nevertheless accept full responsibility for these eventualities. | |
| BOOKING | |
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Booking and management of this tour has been entrusted to Heritage of Industry Ltd which is run by Bill Barksfield. Bill is Overseas Tour organiser on the AIA Council and will accompany the tour. If you have access to an internet connected computer and use email please make your booking online. In the event that you are unable to use a computer then please fill in the attached form and post it to us at the address below. If you give an email address on your application then confirmation and all subsequent communications with you will be by email. Bookings will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to space availability. Booking is subject to a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 50 people. Book as soon as possible and by 17th March 2025 to ensure a place but please feel free to enquire after that date if a place is still available. We will contact you as soon as possible to confirm the booking and to issue an invoice for the balance of the price. Invoices for the balance of the price will be issued about 8 weeks before the tour starts. You are advised not to make contingent travel arrangements until we have confirmed that the minimum number of people required to operate the tour has been reached. We will inform you as soon as the minimum is reached. A non-refundable deposit of £120 per person is required on booking. Bookings can be made definite only when the booking details and deposit are received and accepted in writing/email by Heritage of Industry Ltd. The company's standard terms and conditions apply. The balance of the price is to be paid to Heritage of Industry Ltd on presentation of the invoice. All monies paid to Heritage of Industry Ltd will be held, in accordance with government regulations**, in a customer protection account until the tour is complete so that your money is safe no matter what happens. We are pleased to say that we are now able to take debit/credit card and GooglePay payments. Payment may also be made via your bank’s online banking facilities, the necessary details are shown on the booking form. Please send an email note when you have made payment in this way. We prefer not to handle cheques for payment. Book online now Download a printable copy of the above with a booking form to send by post (if you insist). Enquiries about this tour should be directed to Bill Barksfield, Managing Director, Heritage of Industry Ltd, The Gables, 20 Main Road, East Hagbourne OX11 9LN UK Tel/Fax: +44 1235 352275 Email: bill@heritageofindustry.co.uk ** The Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 (SI 1992 No. 3288) |
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