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Routes
The exhibition
rooms are the point of reference from which we discover a broader patrimonial group,
which have, as a point of interest, the city of Balaguer and the territory that depended
on it during the middle ages, both politically and economically and culturally (approximately
the present day district of La Noguera), without forgetting, however, the relationship
with the history of Catalonia.
The museum project of the Museum of La Noguera contemplated the central headquarters
as a centre of interpretation which would be linked to a series of radial sites that
may be situated both in the city of Balaguer itself and the district, with the function
of explaining a specific part of the general discourse of the museum more broadly.
Thus, it was planned that the Pla díAlmatà would be the point where the Andalusian
city would be explained, Castle Formós would present power both in the Islamic
and in the feudal epochs, the church of Santa Maria would explain the role of the
church and the Gothic in interior Catalonia, and finally, the monastery of Santa
Maria de les Franqueses would explain the Cistercian world and the role of the monasteries
in the repopulation of the lands conquered from Islam.
The museum proposes three routes which will complete the discourse of the permanent
exhibition through direct experience and enjoyment of the historical concepts.
1. The city of the three cultures.
The city, dominated
by the majestic Gothic church of Santa Maria and the Medieval walls, is formed by
a dense network of streets and passages, with an irregular layout, with exceptional
characteristics, as it is one of the very rare urban nuclei of Arabic formation conserved
with the corresponding later additions, of which the Plaça Mercadal and the
Jewish quarter from the 14th century are most notable, and which make the historic
centre one of the most powerful and individual images of all Catalan cities.
2. La Noguera, land of castles
La Noguera, the
largest district in the principality, between the new and the old Catalonia, and
actually separated from Aragon by the Noguera Ribagorçana, is the district
where can discover the exciting world of the Middle Ages of the new Catalonia, from
the Andalusian period and the Islamic legacy left to our lands, to the noble Catalonia
of one of the most notable lineages, the counts of Urgell. From Albesa and Castelló
de Farfanya to Camarasa and Artesa de Segre, after going through Os de Balaguer and
the valley of Àger, we finish up at Conca de Meià, Ponts and the Barony
of Rialb with one of the most exciting journeys in the medieval history of the Principality.
3. The 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 peninsula belonged to al-Àndalus left a strong imprint both on a linguistic
and toponymic level and in popular culture and gastronomy, as well as architectonic
remains and monuments, and determined the configuration of Catalonia.
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More information:
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