Romans, Carla

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

THE "CENTRE EXCURSIONISTA 
D E  CATALUNYA" 
THE "CENTRE EXCURSIONISTA DE CATALUNYA", FOUNDED 
IN BARCELONA IN 1890, HAS NOT ONLY BEEN IMPORTANT 
FOR ITS SCIENTIFIC AND RECREATIONAL ASPECTS. OVER 
THE YEARS, WITH A PROFOUND WISH TO SERVE, IT HAS 
DEVELOPED A LARGE NUMBER OF ACTIVITIES AIMED AT 
CULTURAL VINDICATION, THE RECOVERY OF THE ARTISTIC 
HERITAGE AND THE DEFENCE OF OUR COUNTRY'S 
NATURAL PARKS. 
I N S T I T U T I O N S  
uring the greater part of the 
nineteenth century a movement 
took place in Catalonia which 
was known as the Renaixenca and 
whose aim was to recover and rebuild 
the signs of identity of a culture, the 
Catalan culture, which had suffered a 
long period of decline. On its romantic 
side, the Renaixenca was concerned 
with tradition, history and direct con- 
tact with nature. The birth of rambling 
in Catalonia is inseparable from this 
movement, although it is also linked to 
developments in communications and 
the particular geography of the country. 
The "Centre Excursionista de Catalu- 
nya" (CEC) was founded in Barcelona 
in 1890, as a result of the fusion be- 
tween the "Associació Catalana d7Excur- 
sions Científiques" (created in 1876 
and the predecessor of the present cen- 
tre) and the "Associació Catalana #Ex- 
cursions" (1878). It is the oldest ramb- 
lers organisation in the whole of the 
Spanish state, and originally combined 
scientific and recreational aspects, 
though during the early years it was the 
former that prevailed: geologists, bota- 
nists, philologists, historians and folk- 
lorists saw rambling as a direct form of 
contact with reality. Today this ten- 
dency has been reversed, and the majo- 
rity of the centre's members look to it 
above al1 as a sporting or leisure organi- 
sation. Of the eight sections that go to 
make it up (mountaineering, skiing, 
camping, speleology, geography & nat- 
ural sciences, science & art, photography 
and cinema), by far the most active and 
numerous is that of mountaineering, 
which accounts for almost half of the 
centre's 5,000 members, followed by 
skiing. The older members prefer sec- 
tions such as geography or art. 
The first years of the CEC were marked 
by the discovery and subsequent vindi- 
cation of the Catalan cultural heritage 
-artistic and architectural as well as 
natural. The restoration of the monas- 
tery of Ripoll (1879), the rescuing of 
Barcelona's city walls (1912) and the 
campaign against the demolition of the 
city's shipyards (1 9 12) are al1 due to the 
centre. The constant defence of national 
parks and protected areas today takes 
up a large part of the energies of the 
organisation, which has been at the 
forefront of our country's ecological 
movement. 
The first sports section to be founded, 
in 1908, was that of mountain sports, 
which introduced skiing, camping, 
climbing and speleology to Catalonia. 
Since then, the "Centre Excursionista" 
has contributed to the consolidation of 
an infrastructure to facilitate the prac- 
tice of these sports: it has published a 
mass of maps, guides to footpaths, geo- 
graphical, historical and archaeological 
monographs and botanical and meteo- 
rological guides, as well as having sev- 
eral regular specialist publications, 
which include Muntanya and EspeleQ- 
leg. It has also carried out a graphic 
inventory of Catalonia and constructed 
a series of mountain and ski refuges, 
chalets and shelters which it now 
administrates. The La Molina chalet, 
opened in 1925, provided the first win- 
ter sports facilities in Catalonia. The 
CEC's specialized library contains 
30,000 volumes and a collection of 
35,000 maps, both ancient and modern. 
The photographic archive consists of 
some 150,000 documents. The centre 
does a lot of work organising conferen- 
ces, exhibitions and projections. 
Because of its cultural origins and the 
repression of Catalan which took place 
under the Franco régime, the CEC 
played the part that corresponded to it 
as a Catalan association during a diffi- 
cult period, giving classes of Catalan 
language and culture. Today, though, it 
concentrates on its true function, 
organising al1 sorts of rambling activi- 
ties, from an outing by coach to visit a 
particular region of Catalonia to excur- 
sions to the Himalaya or the Polar re- 
gions, including walking races, cycle 
trips and rock climbing, amongst other 
events. Members of the centre have pio- 
neered the ascent of African, South- 
American and Asian peaks. The CEC in 
fact organised the first Catalan expedi- 
tion to Mount Everest, in 1982, which 
reached 8,500 metres. 
Catalan rambling has always had links 
with al1 the cultural manifestations. In 
1903 the centre lent its premises to the 
Estudis Universitaris Catalans to give 
classes in subjects such as Catalan lit- 
erature, Catalan medieval painting and 
Catalan history. In 1906 a conference 
took place at the centre's club rooms to 
consider what was later to become the 
Institut dYEstudis Catalans. Past mem- 
bers of the CEC include the architect 
Antoni Gaudí, the painters Ramon Ca- 
sas and Santiago Rusiñol, the philolo- 
gist Pompeu Fabra and the writers Joan 
Maragall and Narcís Oller, to give just a 
few examples. Rambling has been and 
is today extremely popular in Catalo- 
nia, so much so that the centre's present 
president, Josep Maria Sala, claims that 
it is "our national sport". ¤ 


The "Cente Excursionista de Catalunya"

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert