Culture, the main protagonist of the ARA Premium Club

Culture is the great protagonist of theARA Premium Club, along with meetings with journalists from the newspaper. Three essentially cultural activities were held last week.

The first was a guided tour of Barcelona's Modelo prison, which has been open to visitors for several years now.The participants became aware of the appalling conditions in which social and political prisoners lived (badly) at this penitentiary center throughout its more than one hundred years of operation and were shown most of its spaces, including the parcel room, where Salvador Puig Antich was executed, one of the most terrible events that have occurred. Joan Sanromà, member of the Catalan Association of Former Political Prisoners of the Franco Regime,He shared numerous stories from prison, and Joan Bové, who was arrested during a demonstration at the end of the Franco regime – when he was 18 years old – and imprisoned in the Modelo, explained his experiences.

The second was a guided tour of the Baells reservoir, the only dam on the Llobregat River – there are two others on the Cardener, a tributary of the Llobregat – and one of the largest hydraulic infrastructures in Catalonia.A small group of subscribers accompanied ARA journalist Daniel Romaní to this reservoir, now filled with water. Romero is traveling from one end of the country to the other, searching for the most interesting elements of our freshwater heritage for the daily series on this topic to be published this summer. This series will include diverse aspects such as water towers... This series will dedicate a chapter to the Baells Dam. Those attending the visit toured some of the dam's galleries, while its manager, Aleix Villegas, who has worked on numerous dams in Latin America before working near where he lives (Berga), explained the unique features of this reservoir and the unique use it makes of it for electricity. He also informed them of all the systems they have in place to detect any movement (pendulums, thermometers, etc.) and provided a host of anecdotes ("I saw the water in this reservoir rise one meter every hour, during a storm.") Glory"; "The first inauguration that Juan Carlos I made in Catalonia was this dam, when it was not yet finished.").

Finally, Cava Vila Morgades, located in Castellví de la Marca, a relatively unknown and quiet town in the Penedès region, offered an exclusive tour for the Premium Club, led by Carles Rosés, the current owner of the business (together with his sister María). The activity began in the vineyards, and participants traveled to the farmhouse to learn in detail about the entire cava-making process. The bottles rest on shelves, and every day, they are turned by hand an eighth. These turns are carried out for 28 days. "Why for 28 days? Because it's always been done that way," Carlos commented with a smile. The visit ended with a tasting of different cavas, accompanied by snacks (cheese, bread with exquisite oil, nuts, strawberries...), with excellent views of the vineyards.

Nowadays, virtual tours are offered in many places, but nothing beats a real guided tour. Even today we connect remotely thanks to the Internet, but there's nothing like real encounters. This is the essence of ARA Premium Club, whose members make a small annual contribution that they quickly recoup by participating in just two or three activities—around a hundred are scheduled throughout the year. They share not only their membership in the ARA but also numerous journalistic, cultural, social, and culinary experiences throughout the country. And a great friendship has been forged between them.

Upcoming May Activities

Among the many activities we have planned for the month of May, we can highlight a guided tour of Toni Catany's home and workshop in the heart of Ciutat Vella, which will allow us to delve into the creative universe of the great photographer (May 16); a route that recovers the memory of sinful Girona with lunch at La Taverna del Foment (May 17); a guided tour of the exhibitionZurbarán (on) naturalat the MNAC (May 23), and a visit to the extensive Belloch Forestal nursery (La Roca), which houses a wide variety of trees, some from faraway countries, with an aperitif (May 30), and a tour of Roman Badalona (May 3). We're also planning several meetings with journalists and contributors to the daily newspaper for analysis and debate on current affairs. If you'd like to enjoy all of these experiences,We encourage you to join the Premium Club.