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3. Routes of Islam
in Catalonia
Islam is found in the very origin of Catalonia and was to accompany it in its existence
until the beginning of the 17th century. The four long centuries in which the north-east
of the Iberian peninsula belonged to al-Àndalus left a strong imprint, which
both on a linguistic and toponymic level and in popular culture and gastronomy, as
well as architectonic remains and monuments, determined the configuration of Catalonia.
With these premises, the Catalan Institute of the Mediterranean and the Museum of
La Noguera began the project "The Routes of Islam in Catalonia", a project
based on the design of three itineraries that are approached both from a social and
historical perspective, and from a research project that moves between research and
the administration of the heritage.
3.1. The Frontier
Route. This joins Barcelona and Balaguer following the watercourses that were
the basis of the frontier between al-Andalus and the Carolingian counties between
the 9th and 11th centuries. Following this route we can discover a series of influences
that the Islamic world passed on to the feudal world, as well as distinguishing the
architectonic remains of the two cultures in the landscape, on one side the hisn
andalusí, and on the other the feudal group of the castle-church.
3.2. The route of the Medinas. This joins Balaguer and Tortosa, two of the
most important cities of the Upper March of al-Andalus. The route follows the course
of the rivers Segre, Cinca and Ebre until they flow into the sea. The central axis
is water, initially as a factor of communication, transport and trade in a zone where
the general characteristic is the high degree of urban development of the Andalusian
cities.
3.3. The Route of Exile and Rediscovery. This joins Tortosa and Barcelona
in an effort to transmit the keys to the understanding of the long period that goes
from the moment in which the Mudèjar communities resident in Catalonia were
obliged to "convert" until the time of their expulsion. The painter Marià
Fortuny was the personality who marked the patterns of the "discovery"
of Arabic culture in the 19th century, and the triumph of the taste for orientalism
both in the architecture of one of the great masters of Catalan art of the 20th century,
Antoni Gaudí, and in the examples of neo-Arabic architecture preserved in
Barcelona and the surrounding areas.
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