TheSant Cugat Museum (Catalan:Museu de Sant Cugat,Spanish:Museo de Sant Cugat) was opened on 23 April 2003;[1] its mission was to oversee the conservation and dissemination of the historic, artistic and cultural heritage ofSant Cugat del Vallès inCatalonia. It is part of theBarcelona Provincial Council Local Museum Network and has two centres: theSant Cugat Monastery and Casa Aymat plus two other buildings, the Celler Modernista and the Chapel of Sant Domenec. In both areas there are spaces reserved for temporary exhibitions related to art, history and local and universal heritage. In addition, the Museum works to recover the heritage and memory of the town, periodically organising walks that help people discover local history and heritage.[2]
TheMonastery of Sant Cugat was built between the9th and14th centuries and is the Museum’s headquarters. In addition to the visit to the cloister and church, there are also rooms located around the cloister that have been museumized into an interpretation centre for medieval monasteries. The permanent exhibition explains monastery architecture, how theRomanesque capitals were cut, what the monastic code of TheRule of Saint Benedict stated, and how theSant Cugat Monastery evolved from its founding in the 9th century to secularisation in 1835 under theEcclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal.[3]
A sub-office of the Museum, Casa Aymat was built in 1926 as Tomàs Aymat’s rug and tapestry factory, later on becoming the head office of the CatalanTapestry School. It currently houses the Contemporary Tapestry Museum and displays the traditional beginnings andNoucentista tendencies of Tomàs Aymat through to the era of the Catalan Tapestry School, withJosep Grau-Garriga as the most noteworthy alumnus. The exhibition includes boards and tapestries by Subirachs,Ràfols-Casamada,Guinovart and Hernàndez Pijuan, among others.
This is all that remains of the cooperative wine press, begun in 1921 to the design ofCesar Martinell, an architect who specialised in agricultural building at that time, inspired both byGaudi's art nouveau design and the rationalism of the beginning of the 20th century. The wine industry declined after the 1950s and the last pressing was completed in 1988. The surrounding buildings were demolished, including, in 1994, the hall for vats, to allow for the expansion of urban building. In the remaining hall, exhibitions are shown and can be visited on certain days, particularly weekends.[4]
A small chapel on the road linking the Benedictine monasteries of Sant Cugat and Sant Llorenç del Munt via the towns of Sant Cugat, Sant Quirze, Terrassa and Matadepera. There are exhibitions about the Monks' Path and the Battle of Sant Cugat during thePeninsular War but the chapel is rarely open.
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41°28′27.86″N2°5′7.08″E / 41.4744056°N 2.0853000°E /41.4744056; 2.0853000
