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The permanent exhibition
The montage
of the permanent exhibition rooms carries the generic title "Hisn Balagi-Balaguer.
From the Medina to the City" and is divided into four rooms that explain the
lifestyles of the Middle Ages in Catalonia from the perspective of Balagî,
a city founded by the Arab communities that entered the Iberian Peninsula at the
beginning of the 8th century and that later passed into feudal hands, to become the
capital of one of the important counties of Catalonia, the County of Urgell.
The first is centred on the territorial and political framework of what was
the "Upper March" of al-Àndalus and the Catalan counties, making
special reference to the social and ideological side of the two opposing cultures.
The presence of the materials from the Visigothic epoch from the village of El Bovalar
(Serós) are especially notable, and undoubtedly the most important site in
Catalonia from the 8th century, with a broad representation of ceramics, farm implements,
etc. as well as belt buckles, glassware and coin treasures. The typical culture of
the Andalusian world and the feudal world represented by the county of Urgell can
also be compared in this room.
The second room, under the title Madîna Balagî, deals with the
Islamic city in depth, from its origins to the period of maximum prosperity (the
11th century). The treatment given to El Pla d'Almatà is especially notable,
the most important archaeological site of the Islamic period in Catalonia, as well
as the presence of a very wide range of Andalusian ceramics.
Hisn Balagî, title of the third room presents the castle as the centre
of power, both in the Islamic epoch and in the county period, of which we should
highlight the plasterworks that decorated the Arabic palace which the governor of
the Taifa of Lleida, Yusuf al-Muzaffar ordered built between 1046 and 1050,
and which represent one of the few examples of Islamic architecture from this period
in the Iberian peninsula, comparable to the remains of the Aljaferia of Zaragoza
or the citadel of Malaga. It is also worth noting the remains of the county palace,
both in the elements of architectonic decoration and the remains of the common and
luxurious crockery of the counts (ceramics with metallic reflection from Manises).
Finally, the room has incorporated three metres of the water channels from the gardens
of the county palace, created from mosaics and blue tiles from Manises-Paterna.
The last room, called the City of Balaguer, is dedicated to explaining the
characteristics of the city in the 14th-15th centuries, a period in which it was
the capital of the county of Urgell. |
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