Every day, whether it's cold or a heat that cracks stones, more than a hundred residents of the Remei neighborhood in Vic pedal to Santa Eugènia de Berga to work at the slaughterhouse. They don't wear jerseys or cyclometers. The bicycle is simply the vehicle that allows them to arrive for early morning shifts and return home at odd hours. It's a daily scene that goes unnoticed, but it explains a large part of the area's reality.

Yes, there are still farmhouses in Barcelona, even though it is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. One of my favorites is the one behind the National Museum of Art of Catalonia. It is not excessively old – it is more or less a century old – but it contains most of the ingredients of any farmhouse: a dovetailed door, a sundial on the facade, with the phrase Progredior ultra retro non referar (We move forward, we do not return to the past). There are no longer any poultry or pigs. Inside, elements of peasant life are still preserved, such as a series of hollowed-out pumpkins that served as containers for water and wine. "This farmhouse was built as a livestock pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition," Jaume Pàmies Pagès, a geographer who has worked at the Barcelona Botanical Garden for years, explains to me. Previously, he had worked as an environmental educator, mountain guide, forest ranger, and gardening teacher. The ground floor is opened to the public on special occasions, when there is an activity: workshops, talks... Normally, the gardener and the volunteers of the Association of Friends of the Botanical Garden use it to store the tools for the vegetable garden that occupies part of the so-called Sot de la Masia (a large hole from an old quarry). This garden produces seeds of traditional native varieties and some exotic ones, but all non-hybrid. "We cultivate, reproduce and conserve varieties that the modern world has been displacing, such as the black pea (typical of the north of the regions of Solsonès and Berguedà), the Tiurana chili pepper, the white eggplant and the queen mother broad beans –says Jaume–. It is our grain of sand for the conservation of biodiversity", he adds..The farmhouse has also preserved a wood-burning stove. On the coldest days they light it to heat the large room. They burn wood from garden trees that have had to be cut down (they have fallen in a storm, they have died, it has been necessary to thin their bases...). "I like it when, early on a winter day, as I walk up the stairs from the MNAC to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, I see the chimney smoking and even smell the wood smoke," comments Jaume.

Tired of his boat being stolen and left abandoned on the other side of the lake, its owner put an anti-theft system into practice: he made a hole in it, which he plugged with a stopper when he sailed, and took the stopper home with him. And he left the boat full of water near the lake. In the Ivars pond, the cement boats were the same as the wooden ones. The explanation is quite simple: they were built with a plaster mold made from a wooden boat. Eduard Ribes, guide of the Ivars and Vila-sana pond, tells me this next to one of these boats. It is the jewel of Cal Sinén, an old farmhouse from 1910 located on the edge of the pond, which has been redone – with its exterior walls of rammed earth – and now houses an information center that explains, with texts and images, a lot of stories about the pond, from before and now. In the past, it housed hunters."Cement boats were preferred by hunters. Because they are heavier than wooden ones, when they fired the shotgun they moved less; and luckily it was so, because the waterline is high", Eduard explains to me, who spends time removing Florida turtles from the lake, "pets" that many, tired of having to take care of them, have "thrown" at him. They are invasive species, which gobble up toads, frogs, snakes... He also removes American river crabs, which eliminate European crabs (yes, European crabs – and so many other things– feel harassed by Americans).

Before the jackdaws raise their festive song again, the square fills with a silence that doesn't appear on any festival program. Conversations fade, children tiptoe to catch every detail, and all eyes converge on a single figure. Slowly, a powerful eagle advances through the procession. Its neck bends with ancient precision; its wings, motionless, seem to still hold the impulse of flight. Each step is deliberate, each gesture breathes a solemnity that time has not managed to erode.When the dance begins, the square changes its rhythm. The drums give way to restrained music, the bows draw a language that crosses centuries and, for a few moments, the celebration abandons the clamor to become an act of honor. The eagle dances with the majesty of one who represents something much older than herself.There are few figures in Catalan popular culture capable of arousing similar emotion. For more than six hundred years, the eagle has traversed the streets of towns and cities, leading processions, opening festive parades and greeting authorities with the same serene nobility. Since the late Middle Ages, it has embodied the dignity of the city, the memory of the community and respect for its institutions. When it advances amidst music and silence, it is not just a crowned bird crossing the square. It is an entire town that recognizes itself in its gestures and that, year after year, continues to find in that dance a way to celebrate its own history.The bird that could caress the SunBefore becoming the most solemn figure in Catalan processions, the eagle already soared through the imagination of great ancient civilizations. Its flight, higher than that of any other bird, awoke a fascination that would span centuries. It seemed to approach the Sun to where the human gaze could not reach, and it became a symbol of strength, power, and incessant renewal. Greeks and Romans made it an emblem of strength and authority. Over time, medieval tradition would expand this symbolism by attributing an exceptional quality to it: the ability to hold its gaze before the light of the Sun without faltering. Legends went even further. They explained that when their feathers aged, the eagle would soar up to the sun's rays for the fire to consume them. Then it would descend to a spring of pure water to submerge itself, emerging with new and shiny plumage. That cycle of fire and water turned it into a powerful metaphor for the Renaissance, an image that would take root deeply in the medieval imagination.

Of all the surgical instruments on display at the pharmacy I am visiting today, the one that impacts me most is a saw. Doctors used it to amputate. Since there was no anesthesia (patients were often given a few drops of ether, and that was it!) operations had to be done as quickly as possible. The most prestigious surgeons were the fastest.This collection of surgical instruments – very varied: some curved ones stand out, such as scissors, which are clearly not hairdressing scissors – is one of the elements that most catches the eye in the pharmacy – now a museum – of the old Santa Caterina hospital, in the center of Girona. In baroque style, like the entire building, the pharmacy also preserves mortars, scales, and a large quantity of pots (vases and jars). The jars are empty, of course, but they say what they contained. One says "belladonna", a substance that dilates the pupils. Some high society women used it because they said it made them more beautiful.Walking through the pharmacy takes me on a journey to the 18th century, when epidemics like cholera, plague, smallpox, malaria... were frequent, and to the 19th century, when tuberculosis and respiratory diseases reigned. The pharmacy was also active throughout the 20th century, but the diseases are now more similar – in reality, almost the same – to those we know today, although new ones have appeared, even epidemics, like covid. The one that has never been absent, of course, is gastroenteritis, which those of us outside the medical field call a tummy ache.The pharmacy, formed by two spaces (the sales area and the back room, where the laboratory was), is the great treasure of this hospital. But there is more. For example, the magnolia courtyard, a place of peace that gives access to a good part of the dependencies of the old hospital, including the pharmacy itself. The walls are lined with sgraffiti, which are not from the era when the building was constructed, but later, from 1928. What a delight the courtyards of Girona are! And how beautiful when the Flower Time arrives. A third treasure: the chapel, essential to any hospital. If the doctors didn't arrive, God did the rest, even if it meant taking the patient to the other world. It is certainly a large temple. In this way, both the sick and the entire congregation of the neighborhood or the city could attend mass (the pharmacy also served the population). The chapel, desacralized, is today an auditorium named after Josep Irla, who presided over the Generalitat in exile for many years. It is the seat of the Generalitat of Catalonia in Girona. Given its dimensions, a few years ago one of the largest paintings in Catalonia was installed there: The Great Day of Girona, by Ramon Martí Alsina. It is about 5 meters by 10 meters.

This Tuesday marks twenty years since Mariona Galindo's death; a name that remains alive in the memory of the Capgrossos de Mataró, but also of the entire casteller world. To pronounce it is, even today, an exercise in memory, respect, and affection. At just twelve years old, Mariona was part of a generation of children who experienced castells with the enthusiasm, responsibility, and joy of those who had found a second family in the group. No one could have imagined that the summer of 2006 would end up becoming one of the most painful pages in casteller history. But this tragedy also accelerated profound changes in castells safety: the helmet for children, which was already being developed, went from being a project to becoming a reality. And immediately.

"Was Gaudí the one married to Gala?". "Is there a McDonald's in here?". No, it's not a joke: these are some of the questions that visitors to the Sagrada Família have asked Tate Cabré. Also – it must be said – many others have asked her pertinent questions, which denoted a high cultural level. Tate Cabré is a tourist guide – and a journalist – and leads a lot of groups to the Sagrada Família. Her specialty is Modernism.

In Spanish they are called the three « h «. I write it in Catalan and you will translate it yourselves. Footprints, eggs and bones. They are the three elements of great value that have been found in the paleontological site of Fumanya, in Berguedà. It is an exceptional site. Now you will see it. "Here there were above all what we popularly call « long-necked dinosaurs «, that is, titanosaurs", explains Bernat Vila, geologist and paleontologist specialized in dinosaurs and macroevolution of the fossil record.Everything that has been found here has given us a lot of information about the sizes, how they walked, how they reproduced, how they grew, or where the dinosaurs grazed in this territory. They are the last dinosaurs that lived in Europe, disappeared due to the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. "The approximate length of their torso, that is, the distance between the hind and front legs, has been calculated at about three meters. And they were about 11 meters long," specifies Bernat. "Counting the neck and tail quite horizontally," I ask him. "Yes." "Its foot was about seventy centimeters long and the sole of the foot was padded to support the weight of the body," he specifies. "The skull was relatively small and pointed, and they had small, pencil-shaped teeth that they used to tear up vegetation. They had front legs shorter than the hind legs. They walked by moving both legs on one side at the same time and then those on the other," explains Bernat Vila, who dedicated a lot of hours to excavating and studying this site. Today we take a trip seventy million years back. This area was a muddy plain near the sea, which stretched for hundreds of kilometers to the west, and inland there were shallow lakes and riverbeds that often dried up. Over millions of years, that sea gradually retreated. Dinosaur footprints were imprinted in the mud and, once dried, a layer of materials was deposited until they were solidified into rock.We are at the permanent exhibition of the Dinosaures Fumanya Interpretation Centre. When the building didn't exist, eggs and bones ended up at the Catalan Institute of Paleontology, in Sabadell. The most logical thing was for them to return. And so it was. To achieve this, Alba Boixader, head of the Cercs Mines Museum, to which the Dinosaures de Fumanya Interpretation Centre depends, put pressure: "I would have chained myself to the bridge of the Baells reservoir if they hadn't returned them," she says as we admire a fossilized titanosaur skin.

When the Festa Major of Riera de Gaià arrives, the colors of the shirts take a back seat. Castellers de la Joves de Valls, la Vella, els Xiquets de Tarragona, els Xiquets del Serrallo, els Nois de la Torre, els Castellers d'Altafulla or other groups from the region take off their usual identity for a day. They put on a checkered shirt, tie their sashes, and form a pinecone under a single name: els Espigolats de la Riera.

Although we put numbers to the universe, it is very difficult to get an idea of its dimensions. It contains more than 100,000 million galaxies like ours. And in our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are more than 100,000 million stars. The Earth is 4,500 million years old. If the first hominids are from a million years ago, it is clear that humans arrive at the last instant. These are some of the numerous megadata disseminated by the Montsec Astronomical Park that confirm what we already knew: we are insignificant. And to top it all off, the universe, which began almost 14,000 million years ago with the Big Bang, is expanding. Yes, it is being observed that the most distant galaxies are getting further and further away. I'm traveling to one of the places in the country with the darkest sky ––although, it must be said, a little light from Balaguer, Lleida, Zaragoza, the metropolitan area, etc. arrives at night–: Montsec. I'm going to the Montsec Astronomical Park, not to the Montsec Observatory, located a few kilometers away, but much higher up, where the largest telescope in Catalonia is located, named after Joan Oró, considered one of the founders of organic cosmochemistry, a discipline that studies the origin and evolution of organic molecules in space. Oró was very popular in Catalonia in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century. I'm saying this especially because if you go there it's easy to put the wrong location: Montsec Observatory. You have to put Montsec Astronomical Park. The Montsec Astronomical Park –by the way, driven, among others, by Joan Oró– is the main attraction of Àger, along with paragliding (people come from all over the world to do it). Previously, it was the Collegiate Church of Sant Pere d'Àger, located at the top of the municipality, half in ruins –it was bombed during the Reapers' War and during the First Carlist War, in 1835–, although it has been extensively restored. Don't miss going there, though. This astronomical park is very, very educational. It wanted to pay tribute to Maria Assumpció Català, an astronomer, athe first doctor in mathematics from the University of Barcelona, who decisively pushed for Spain to join the European Space Agency, naming one of the main telescopes after him. In addition, permanent exhibitions have been set up there. I will visit them later, I think. As soon as I arrive, a documentary screening is about to begin, in a large dome 12 meters in diameter. I put on a pair of 3D glasses they offer me. I am surprised –positively– there is only one empty seat left. Someone has had an unforeseen event, be it a fever, the death of a relative... Or perhaps tiredness? It is more likely the latter than that all tickets except one have been sold. I am really enjoying the documentary Voyager, about the automatic probes Voyager I and II that explored in the 70s and 80s the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. An especially fascinating episode is an electrical storm on Jupiter. When the projection ends, surprise!: the dome opens and we see the real sky. One of the stellar moments of the visit is the observation of the firmament. We can see it every day, if there are no clouds. But doing it accompanied by a crowd of people who are interested in it, and having the explanations of the guide, David Rabanal Nogués, is infinitely better. David has a laser in his hand, which makes a beam of light that reaches up to 200 meters (to give us an idea, a distance slightly greater than the height of the Sagrada Família), and he points out planets, stars, and some of the 88 constellations.stellar "You already know that the stars barely move. What moves is the earth. Throughout the year, the stars change places because we are moving. This is one of the facts that show that the earth is round", says David. And then he pretends to threaten the group with the laser. "I hope that among all of you there are no flat-earthers!", he says with a smile. There are deniers of scientific certainties, like a temple, infiltrated where you would never expect.

The Feast of Our Lady of the Snows confirmed this Saturday that it continues to be one of the major events on the casteller calendar. On the tenth anniversary of its consolidation as a 'plaça de deu' (a square with ten-level towers), the four teams came out determined to show their best cards. Each pursued different objectives, but all opened the performance with the peak they have reached this season, on a day of extremely high level that ended with the Castellers de Vilafranca signing the best performance ever seen in the Vilanova square.

Every new brown bear counted in the Pyrenees is a success for the conservation of the species. It is also a cause for concern for Catalan farmers. It is the largest carnivore living in the country and a protected species that was reintroduced in 1996. Since then, the population has continued to grow and, according to the latest data, there are already 54 established specimens in the Catalan Pyrenees. Its diet is mostly vegetarian, based on herbs, fruits, and roots, but they also eat meat. It is this occasional behavior that worries farmers in Pallars Sobirà, because bears sometimes attack their flocks.

Under the rotating metal dome that protects a precious telescope, located at the top of an old manor house in the heart of Vic, it is a devilishly hot day. Of course: it's the peak of midday. I notice a few dents on this dome, painted a color that mixes grey (from the fog, so typical of Vic – there's less of it now than before–) and blue (from the sky). These dents were caused by a strong hailstorm. There are also some caused by a bombing that took place at the end of the Civil War.

Arrives at El Celler de Can Roca cycling, with a backpack on her back. “In my locker I always have a change of clothes for cycling and another for street wear, and a towel to be able to arrive, shower and get ready. The curtain opens: I put on the service uniform. It closes: I put on the cycling outfit”. Marta Cortizas (Culleredo, A Coruña, 1992) is a sommelier with a meteoric career. She arrived in Girona in 2021 with a single suitcase and her bicycle for a four-month stage alongside Pitu Roca. She hasn't left since: in 2024 she was recognized as the best sommelier in Catalonia and in 2025, of the entire State and the Iberian Peninsula.

With the arrival of the first heat, perfumery firms present their main bets of the season, with fragrances designed to accompany throughout the summer. Citrus aromas, marine notes, floral accords and very suggestive compositions mark this year's novelties, which seek to combine freshness, durability and personality. In this ranking, we compile some of the most outstanding launches of the season, a selection that reflects the trends that will mark the summer in the world of perfumery.

With the arrival of good weather, sunglasses become much more than an accessory to protect your vision. They are an essential complement that defines style, adds personality, and completes any summer look. This season, trends combine classic designs with daring proposals to satisfy all tastes. We have selected five models that stand out for their aesthetics, versatility, and ability to set trends so you can choose the perfect sunglasses to enjoy the summer.

It's impossible to cross paths with him and not look at him. Wool jersey, knitted shorts, 1950s cycling shoes, a flat cap instead of a helmet, vintage glasses and a spare camera on his chest. But what draws the most attention is the bicycle. “It's Dutch, from 1908, made of iron and little else. An uncomfortable racing bike in terms of position, without gears and with spoon brakes over the tires, with which I have ridden hundreds of kilometers”. Isma Garcia (Granollers, 1992) has been steeped in cycling since he was very young, growing up in a family linked to the almost centenary Granollers Cycling Club. But it wasn't until his twenties that he began on his own in a hobby with which he has ended up finding a large community on social networks: restoring century-old bicycles.

Thanks to volcanoes, vegetables can be kept fresher. Yes, those that make it possible are the vents, small openings between volcanic rocks through which a slight current of air at around 12°C flows all year round, but with more force during the summer. The farmhouses, and the farmers who worked all day in the garden, used the vents as cool storage.

"How has the Catalan character influenced the country's architecture?", asks architect Joan Roig in front of a good twenty subscribers of ARA, members of the Club Prèmium, at the entrance of the exhibition "Seny i rauxa. Notícia de l’arquitectura catalana" (Sense and passion. News of Catalan architecture), which takes place at Disseny Hub Barcelona until the beginning of September. It is precisely the dichotomy "seny i rauxa" (sense and passion), prudence and passion, that defines Catalans, which also defines Catalan architecture, in the opinion of Joan Roig, curator of the exhibition, together with Victòria Garriga and Carme Ribas."Seny i rauxa. Notícia de l’arquitectura catalana" reviews the last 150 years of Catalan architecture, since the founding of the School of Architecture until today, through a wide variety of pieces, both architectural material – sketches, plans, models and photographs – and artistic and design works – paintings, sculptures and furniture – with an innovative approach that links the artistic and architectural legacy with expressive movements and social dynamics. All of this is not exhibited chronologically or by style. And what order does it have? Go see it! In addition, one of the attractions is that there is a lot of "unpublished" material, which was kept and is very difficult to show.

"In the sixties, when I was a child, I lived in a house located in the lower part of Mataró, very close to the sea. I really liked going to the beach after storms. There was everything: logs, small rounded pieces of colored glass... and shells and small snails. I used to collect shells and snails," explains Alfons Palau. "When I spent a few days in Galicia, I took the opportunity to go to the beaches and collect sand brought by the waves, which contained many small snails. Since it took time to find them, I decided to take that sand from the Atlantic home, to the Mediterranean, and thus observe it calmly and sort out snails and shells. I could spend months observing a bag of sand. I did it with a binocular magnifying glass, and the result was very effective." The collection is composed of approximately 93,000 items. They are saltwater snails and shells, freshwater (from rivers, lakes, and ponds), land snails, and fossil snails and shells. "When we had covid-19, I took advantage of the confinement to review and inventory the entire collection," she recalls.Alfons decided to donate the collection to a museum, as no one in the family intended to continue it. He didn't want it to be lost. "I looked for natural science museums nearby and found the one in Granollers. They came to see the collection and confirmed that they would keep it. They took it away recently." It is now at the Granollers Museum of Natural Sciences, well documented: for each piece, its name, the family it belongs to, the place where it was found, and the date are written.