One century of photography and preservation in Catalonia: the Service for Local Architectural Heritage (SPAL)

Abstract

The Service for the Cataloguing and Preservation of Architectonic Monuments was created by the Provincial Government of Barcelona the same year as the constitution of the Regional Government of Catalonia called Mancomunitat (1914-1925). Both establishments, Diputació and Mancomunitat, were presided over by Enric Prat de la Riba, one of the most charismatic politicians of his time in Catalonia and in Spain. This Architectural Service was created just one hundred years ago, on 9th June 1914, and was a consequence of the “Report for the Preservation and Cataloguing of Monuments” produced by the Catalan Studies Institute, the academic entity responsible for all matters related to Catalan culture from its foundation in 1907.