A group of researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona were on the roof of the Palau Güell, on Carrer Nou de la Rambla in Barcelona, and noticed the twenty chimneys that crown this Antoni Gaudí building, recognized by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. Observing them, the question arose. Do they work or are they just ornamental? "It could be that they were just for show or a way to boast," explains Albert Samper, professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture, who recalls that chimneys were a status symbol, as it implied that buildings that had them had heating, a luxury that at the end of the 19th century only the wealthy classes could afford. But it could also be that the chimneys responded to their main function and were capable of extracting smoke. Gaudí did not write anywhere whether the original chimneys could actually work.

The Falset Wine Fair (Showcase and Market of Wines from DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant) once again bets on cultural and territorial alliances as an integral part of its program, having reissued collaborations from recent years with the cities of Reus and Tarragona, the Fair of Emerging and Family Music of Vila-seca and the Garbinada Pop festival. As a result of this understanding, the Wine Fair weekend (from May 1 to 3) will feature the presence of the cities of Reus and Tarragona, and a series of concerts and shows have been programmed for both a general and family audience.

Butcher wanted in La Selva del Camp (Baix Camp). Stable long-term job. Morning hours (including Saturday) and afternoons from Monday to Friday. Experience and skill with knives essential. Income guarantee and, above all, absolute guarantee of recognition from the village elders, who are already starting to suffer. "This business of eating well is over," laments Maria, as she leaves Miquel and Pepita's butcher shop. "It's been talked about for a while – she continues – but I prefer not to ask," she says. By the end of the year, the three butcher shops in the village will close, and the only option for the 5,700 residents of Selva to buy meat within the municipality will be to go to the supermarket. For some neighbors, like Maria, this is an unprecedented upheaval. "You don't know how much my grandchildren enjoy it when they come to my house and try grandma's hamburgers... My daughter goes to the supermarket, which is another price, but of course..." concludes the neighbor.

I admit that I have lived in Baix Penedès for many years but, due to life circumstances, I had never seen the carpets made in Bellvei.

I've been seeing well-built businesses for a long time – with clear offerings, strategy, track record, and happy customers – that reach a point where things stagnate or even stop working. And for months I've been pondering why.

There are spaces that tell the past of a community better than any history book. In Amposta, this story inevitably goes through its market. Not only as a commercial facility, but as the setting where, for decades, the daily life of the city has unfolded – and still unfolds today.

“The first wine list at the restaurant was made by Ester Nin. Everything I know, she has taught me. Drinking and tasting together, asking her many questions, and me being very persistent and her very generous”. Sincere and direct, that’s how sommelier Litus Raga is, who is retiring after twenty years at the helm of the dining room at La Cooperativa restaurant, in Porrera. “I still have an unpaid invoice from the first day; they were a group of very generous winemakers, but they never remembered to pay it”, he shares with a smile. “Working has been a hobby”, he states upfront. And then: “Whoever hasn’t come all these years, I don’t expect them before I say goodbye”. The last service will coincide with the upcoming Fira del Vi de Falset. He has clear ideas and is one of those sommeliers who, by reading gestures and looks, knows what each table needs, attending to the honest and sincere cuisine of Mia Vall Grau. A floral shirt – a choice surely unconscious but matching the tablecloth – and always precise and often sharp words. They serve as his shield to serve: “There are wines that haven’t moved since the beginning, Vall Llach, Cims de Porrera, Clos Mogador... But from classicism, we have opened windows to new ideas and concepts like those of Nin Ortiz and Terroir al Límite, to whites, to brisados, to bubbles. We have been selecting projects that dialogue with La Cooperativa’s cuisine, with civets, fricandós and roasts. From body, structure, and over-extraction, we have moved to wanting lightness. I think the DOQ Priorat wineries have approached Mia’s stews”, he shares without complexes.

Easter gives the starting signal for the high tourist season on the Costa Daurada. It is increasingly common to see groups of tourists walking through the streets following marked routes, with a clear commitment to extending activity beyond the summer. This dynamism represents an undeniable economic engine, but it also accentuates overcrowding in coastal areas, pressure on services, and a progressive homogenization that threatens local identity. Without a real balance between economy and sustainability, tourist success may end up diluting what makes it attractive.

Unfortunately, the upheaval that the world is suffering, with regional conflicts of strong global implications, economic but above all of democratic culture, diminishes the Catalan cause. Now, as almost a hundred years ago, the emergence of totalitarian, not to say fascist, positions and discourses demands a strong democratic reaction that, as a hundred years ago, is not happening nor is it foreseen. Despite everything, it is essential that it occurs, for the good of all and, above all, of the young generations. And the leadership can only fall to consolidated democracies, with Europe at the forefront, following the stance made explicit by Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, at the last meeting of the Davos Forum.We must promote policies for greater European integration, supporting political parties that are firmly committed to it, not just discursively. As European integration progresses, the sovereignty of states will diminish. The most relevant decisions – economic, regulatory, or geopolitical – will no longer be made solely at the state level, but increasingly at the European level. In such a context, some issues that today seem almost irresolvable – such as the Spanish state allowing a referendum on self-determination – may be different. When the political weight of states is diluted, the relationships between peoples, territories, and governments can be reorganized with greater flexibility and less drama than we perceive today.Perhaps, then, the most realistic path lies not so much in local decisions as in contributing to the construction of a federal Europe, a Europe in which its peoples share the great responsibilities and challenges of our time.

The singer and musician Anna Amigó Vilalta (l’Espluga de Francolí, 1982) will participate this Friday in the semifinals of the World Harp Competition, in the Netherlands, which brings together the best harpists in the world. Amigó is the first harpist from the State to reach the semifinal of this competition. She will attend with the Celtic harp and her work Sang de dona, which has been seen on stages in Catalonia and abroad for a year.

It doesn't seem so long ago when it was common to consider Priorat wines as low-grade, only serving to give alcohol content and body to other wines or, in the best of cases, for bulk consumption. A historically widespread idea outside our regions, although even here there were those who defended it as a fighting wine. But, in reality, the good reputation of Priorat wines is not relatively recent. In fact, the possibilities for retail sales, as well as exports of this generic designation, were already part of the business concerns of a good handful of entrepreneurs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Officially registering the designation, especially for the retail market, would become the obsession of some producers and marketers of the time.

Rosalia Pegueroles works one night on and one night off as a nurse in an operating room at the Hospital Universitari Verge de la Cinta. When her workday ends, she sleeps for a few hours and goes to be the mayor of her town, Aldover (Baix Ebre). Daniela Lleixà also juggles both jobs: she starts the day as a nurse in her town, Mas de Barberans (Montsià), and in the afternoons she exchanges her white coat for the mayor's staff. Mar Lleixà has a similar life, although she is the mayor of a larger city, Tortosa, and had to put her white coat away for later. Until this past January, she worked as a nurse at the same hospital as Rosalia, but following a government agreement with the PSC, it was her turn to be mayor in the latter part of the term, representing ERC. "I'll go back to being a nurse later. Because I am a nurse!", Mar claims.

The intense rains that have fallen on Tarragona this winter have filled the streams that flow into the sea and have once again dirtied the beaches with pellets. The water that falls on the facilities of companies that handle these small plastics leads them through the drains to the streams, and then they end up on the beaches and in the sea. The last serious incident occurred due to rainfall between January 16 and 18, as was verified by the municipal beach inspector of La Pineda (Vila-seca), who photographed and documented the thousands of pellets that appeared on the beach.

Data on industrial pollution in the Camp de Tarragona region improves every year, although during 2025, due to the general blackout of AprilEmissions of one of the monitored toxic components spiked. The power outage that plunged Catalonia, Spain, and Portugal into darkness disrupted the normal operation of the chemical plants in Tarragona and triggered a surge in emissions of 1,3-butadiene, one of the volatile compounds generated by the industrial process. In Catalonia, emissions of this element are not regulated by any legislation, but the Ontario (Canada) standard is used as a reference, which sets the annual average for these emissions at 2 µg/m³. During last year's nationwide blackout, levels of this compound reached as high as 150 µg/m³, according to measurements from the petrochemical plant's own sensors in El Morell. Despite this incident, average emissions throughout the Camp de Tarragona region last year did not exceed 2 µg/m³.

I had a really messed up dream last night. I dreamt there were some puppies, and one of them had been enhanced with artificial intelligence. I was terrified and kept thinking: how did we get to this point?

Vermuts Miró is the subject of the first volume in the Business History Library, a project launched by MaserGrup. The book, written by historian Isabel Martínez (Cambrils, 1973), traces the evolution of Vermuts Miró from its founding in 1914 to its acquisition by MaserGrup in 2020, placing the brand's trajectory within the broader history of wine production. The book will be presented on April 7th at Casa Navàs.

A while ago, in a different medium and format, I wondered how El Vendrell could be the way it is. I don't know exactly what it's like either; it's simply El Vendrell. But it's the birthplace of people like Pau Casals, Àngel Guimerà, the brothers Ramon Ramon i Vidales and Joan Ramon i Vidales, the Andreu Nin brothers, and the Lax'n'Busto family. Something like Reus or Sarral, but in the Penedès region.

If we accept that the Catalan people have the right to decide, the next question is practical: why do they want independence? A people's independence is for itself, not against any other. Ultimately, nothing is more natural than wanting to decide for oneself.

Next weekend, L'Hospitalet de l'Infant will once again become a meeting point for construction enthusiasts with the fourth edition of HospiBrick & Click, the largest joint LEGO and Playmobil fair in Catalonia. Last year's fair welcomed nearly 6,000 visitors from the town itself, other parts of Catalonia, and cities such as Zaragoza, Bilbao, Valencia, and Seville. The event will take place in the sports pavilion and will feature over 300 square meters of exhibition space. Visitors will be able to admire twelve Playmobil dioramas and approximately 120 square meters of LEGO creations—forty square meters more than last year—assembled by members of the Somosclicks (Playmobil) and Hispalug (LEGO) associations. In addition to the exhibition area, there will be two specialized sales stands and a play area. bricks LEGO for the little ones.

"Excuse me for not looking at the camera, it's quite difficult to look away from this." This was how journalist Lídia Heredia, TV3's correspondent in Washington, D.C., apologized to the audience during her live broadcast of the solar eclipse in April 2024 from Erie, Pennsylvania. Wearing paper eclipse glasses, her mouth agape, and a face beaming with emotion, the journalist insisted: "Many people feel like we're living through an experience they'll remember for a lifetime." Many residents of southern Catalonia, and thousands of tourists, will have a similar feeling this August 12th, when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun, plunging the sky into darkness. For a minute and a half, as if someone had flipped a switch, it will suddenly go dark, and even the stars will be visible. All of this will occur between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m., depending on the observer's location.