The Fundació Aigües de Manresa – Junta de la Sèquia, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and BBVA sign a contract for the launch of this innovative project
This Wednesday, December 18, the start of the STEAM project in action in Central Catalonia, within the framework of a collaboration agreement between the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the Technical Museum of Manresa, was formalized in an act the Aigües de Manresa-Junta de la Sèquia Foundation, promoted by the mathematician Montse Alsina, from the UPC in Manresa, and Eudald Serra, director of the museum.
The event was attended by the Vice President of the Foundation, Josep Alabern, the director of the Foundation, Laia Muns, the director of the BBVA Client Banking Center in Manresa, Carles Caballero, and the UPC representative.
This is how the signing of the BBVA sponsorship contract was formalized, with the start of the new montage of the exhibition “The Mathematics and Life”, a central element of the project that will be interconnected with the permanent exhibitions. of the Museum of the technique. The sample was born in Manresa 10 years ago through the Caixa Manresa Foundation and the UPC’s math department. Since then, she has been curated by M. Alsina, a research professor in the Mathematics Department of the UPC in Manresa, and has returned to Catalonia in this decade with great public success. The exhibition is scheduled to open on January 31, 2020 at the Manresa Technical Museum. Among the new features, there will be renewed panels with a focus on sustainability and digital transformation, proposed by BBVA.
The STEAM project, from the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, will be a cross-cutting educational proposal that seeks to educate students based on their day-to-day experiences. In addition to the exhibition, multidisciplinary and interactive activities have been programmed, aimed at an audience of 3 to 18 years old, all of them designed and developed by the UPC Manresa. By now there are more than 2,000 students enrolled.
The organization wants the exhibition to become a pole of attraction for these types of activities and, at the same time, to be a speaker for those that take place in other places in the city or in Central Catalonia. One of the first activities will be precisely a training course for the guidance of STEAM activities, aimed at people interested in outreach and education, and with the aim of promoting industrial vocations linked to creativity and daily applications in day. (More course information at: steamenaccio.gestio@gmail.com).
On December 21, the tradition that has been running on Saturday before Christmas will be repeated from 1584. The Mayor of Manresa will give 12 capons to Baron de Balsareny, and later there will be various activities in the castle of Balsareny
This Saturday, December 21, the Mayor of Manresa, Valentí Junyent, and the Representative of the Junta de la Sèquia, Josep Alabern, will recreate the historical tradition of handing over the 12 capons to the Baron de Balsareny, as a payment for the ‘authorization of the felling of trees of their property. The event will take place in Balsareny Castle.
The event will begin at 10.30 am, with the beginning of the parade of the base in the castle. Later, the mayor will deliver the capons, according to tradition, and the captain will deliver the capons. Later, at 12 noon, the castle’s doors will open to everyone, and you will be able to enjoy guided tours, children’s workshops, and a concert by the White Heaven Vocal Group. From 12.30 p.m., there will also be the presentation of the new giants of Balsareny, in Bernat and la Blanca.
The story of the capons
The tradition begins in the 14th century, when King Pere III gave the city of Manresa permission to build a dam on the river Llobregat to stop the water and divert some of it to the Sèquia Canal.
In 1583, a heavy flood carried the dam of the Manresans, just below the castle of Balsareny. The incident prompted an emergency intervention and Manresa workers cut down, without a permit, trees belonging to the baron of Balsareny Castle. The baron put a lawsuit in the city of Manresa in front of the lieutenant of Catalonia and the Royal Hearing, and won it.
That is why in 1584 a pact was signed, in which the Manresans were allowed to cut down baron trees, whenever they needed, and in return they were forced to pay a census of twelve capons. The census was paid until the confiscation abolished titles and royalties. However, at the beginning of the democratic councils the act of capons was restored, as an example of a twinning between Balsareny and Manresa.
This symbolic act is of great importance because thanks to the Sèquia, the city of Manresa was able to prosper economically and, at present, the water from the canal is the one that Aigües de Manresa is drinking water to cover the city of Manresa and other villages in the region. Bages.
An artistic installation based on a calligram of Joan Salvat-Papasseit completes the work of Parc de Can Font
This week, the work of the Can Font park has finished, following an idea that appeared in the project made by architects Josep Miravitlles and Àngels Mas in 2002. They consist of a whole series of ants, made of steel or steel Corten, which fill the wall that delimits the Can Font park with the Santpedor road, and are accompanied by the calligraphy of Joan Salvat-Papasseit titled “Les Formigues”. These will be accompanied by some vineyards that will finish covering the wall.
These works, promoted by the City Council of Manresa and with the support of Aigües de Manresa, have long been claimed by residents of the Santpedor road.
