Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer

Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer

View of the Víctor Balaguer Museum & Library building and grounds
Established	1884
Location	Vilanova i la Geltrú
Director	Mireia Rosich
Public transit access	Vilanova i la Geltrú Railway Station
Website	Official website

The Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer (Víctor Balaguer Museum & Library) is located in Vilanova i la Geltrú and was founded in 1884 by Víctor Balaguer so as to thank the city for its support during his politician career. Since 2000 the museum is part of the National Art Museum of Catalonia and the library is part of the National Library of Catalonia.

The building was built between 1882 and 1884, it is from the architect Jeroni Granell i Mundet and it is located in the centre of Vilanova i la Geltrú, surrounded by the railway station, the superior engineering’s technical college of Vilanova i la Geltrú of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the library of this college. It was specifically conceived as a library and museum, which was unusual at that time. The building is temple’s shaped and it has neo-Egyptian and neo-Greek ornamental elements, distinctive details of public architecture in Catalonia at the end of the 19th century, just before the Modernisme arrived.

On the facade of the building we can find the sculptures of the archbishop Francesc Armanyà and the poet Manuel de Cabanyes, who were relevant figures of Vilanova at the 19th century. On top of the main entrance it can be read the headword Surge et Ambula (stand up and walk in Latin).

It is also relevant the 19th century garden that surrounds the building. Here we can find the called Santa Teresa’s House, place where Víctor Balaguer lived during his stays in Vilanova.

Over the years the building has undergone several alterations and changes, but in the last one they choose recovering the original style designed by Granell and therefore recovering the natural light inside the halls.

It was conceived to make known, through objects and documents of all kinds, the entirety of the knowledge. His founder contributed with books, magazines and other documents. The founder’s intention was to open it to any citizen “without any kind of economical or social exclusion” it was the precedent of Catalan public libraries.