Behind the stone walls of the monastery of Pedralbes many generations of women have lived for seven centuries, and many stories have unfolded. We know many things about struggles, fights for survival, talent, and creativity, thanks to documents and stones, but now it is the turn of the dead. Through DNA, tissues, parchments, floral offerings and aromatic plants, and skeletal remains from the tombs, a new chapter is opening. What began as a conservation intervention to commemorate the seventh centenary of the convent (1326-2026) has become a fascinating archaeological and genetic research. A multidisciplinary team has opened eight tombs from the 14th century and found 25 individuals. And the surprises have only just begun.

Memory is not impartial. There are many silences, invisible people, and biases. Who is remembered and who is not, and why this happens, is a fact that can generate great debates and help imagine new paths, as could be seen this Tuesday at the Pedralbes Monastery. In a new session of the Pedralbes Dialogues, organized in collaboration with ARA and under the intellectual direction of philosopher Daniel Gamper and the moderation of Antoni Bassas, the following question was addressed: Does memory have a gender?

Elisenda de Moncada, the third wife of James II the Just (1267-1327), founded the Pedralbes Monastery In 1325, she never took her vows there as a nun: she lived within a monastery that allowed her, once widowed and childless, to maintain her status as a pious queen, as well as the power and influence she had once held. Written documentation exists about the queen and founder of the monastery, but her tomb may reveal much more about her and the noblewomen who accompanied her. The results of the exhumation and study of the queen's tomb, who wished to be buried between the cloister and the church because she did not want to lose either her status as queen or that of a penitent, and of the 14th-century tombs surrounding it, are among the information that will be made public in May to commemorate the 700th anniversary.

The monastery of Pedralbes, founded by Queen Elisenda de Moncada in 1326 and where until February a community of Poor Clares still lived, had multiple lives. The archaeological excavations, which began in September 2022 in the Baixada del Monestir and whose results were presented this Tuesday, explain part of the monastery's economic life but also its inability to remain isolated from the country's conflicts.

Didactic, stimulating, countercultural, and radically sensible. This is how sociologist David Casassas's thinking flowed in the fourth session of the series. Dialogues on Ethics and Moral Philosophy held at the Pedralbes Monastery, co-organized by Barcelona City Council and the newspaper ARA and curated by philosopher and essayist Daniel Gamper. The (im)possibility of the good life was the title of the talk. Spurred on by questions from Gamper, Antoni Bassas, and the audience, Casassas deployed his accumulated knowledge of Aristotle, Adam Smith, Marx, Don Quixote, and democratic republicanism to connect concepts and examples, especially those related to freedom, such as those he develops in the book. Unconditional Freedom: Basic Income in the Democratic Revolution (Tigre de Papel, 2022).

"A cold house is not a home: it looks like one, but it isn't," he recalled. Josep Maria Esquirol (San Juan de Mediona, 1963) in the third session of the Dialogues on Ethics and Moral Philosophy held at the Pedralbes Monastery, co-organized by Barcelona City Council and the newspaper ARA and curated by philosopher and essayist Daniel Gamper. The series has so far featured the participation of Victoria Camps, Remedios Zafra and Josep Maria Esquirol, professor of philosophy at the University of Barcelona and author of essays such as Intimate resistance (2015), More human human (2021) and The school of the soul (2024).

This February 12th will not be just another feast of Saint Eulalia at the monastery of Pedralbes, in Barcelona, ​​​​because it will be the last with Poor Clare nuns living in community. On Saturday, the three remaining nuns will leave, and thus a presence that has lasted seven centuries will end. It is respectful to know that next year it will be seven hundred years since the foundation of the monastery by Queen Elisenda Montcada, even though we are accustomed to the lack of vocational prominence causing similar news not only in Catalonia, but in countries like Catalonia, where history and culture cannot be understood without the presence and influence of the Church.