Also, according to the disseminating vocation of the site, this year it will gather students from high school so that they can carry out their summer practices. In addition, tours will be available to the public on Friday afternoons.
With these tours, neighbours and people in general can see the task of the archaeologists to define the structure of the former workshop, as well as finding out the tasks in a small part of the site, excavating on previous levels which correspond to older periods.
Professor Josep Maria Gurt, coordinator of the excavations, says more than sixty works by Tarrés are currently visible in buildings around Barcelona. Gurt says that although the site has phases previous to Tarrésʼ workshop, excavations of these periods have to be delicate in order to avoid damaging the remains of the workshop.
Disseminating activities: ArqueUB
Until July 20, a total of eight high school students (two per week) can enjoy these stays in the site and discover this archaeological research. The students will have the help of stuedents of Archaeology and will elaborate a field journal to be published in the project website called
ArqueUB. Registrations are done
online. Moreover, on Friday June 29, and July 6, 13 and 20, the site will be open to the public to visit (
online registration is free). Sessions include a lecture in a room of the Faculty, to tell about the findings in the site and other aspects of the task carried out by archaeologists.
Also, pedestrians walking around the site can see a canvas with texts and illustrations on the archaeological value of this place and the activities that take place there, as well as photographs of pieces that were found in the site some years ago.
All these disseminating activities of the site are part of the project ArqueUB, organized by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i) of the Communication Area of the UB and the Prehistory and Archaeology Section of the Department of History and Archaeology, supported by the Barcelona City Council and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) - Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
A unique possibility for Archaology students
Being in such a place in Raval -where there are many archaeological remains since the 14th century, the Faculty of Geography and History offers the students the unique opportunity to carry out their internships in the same center where they study. These activities are possible thanks to an agreement between the UB and the Barcelona City Council, owner of the site. The aim of this agreement is to study the site with a project to develop research -with archaeological intervention in the site and the study of its materials- using this process to experiment a teaching approach to archaeology, and recovering and dignifying the place as a civic space.
Antoni Tarrésʼ workshop had three big ovens, and basements to store wood as well as several places for pottery. Although he worked on bricks, vessels, building decorations and ceramics, his big talent was terracotta sculpture decoration. His workshop became the first factory to produce these decorations to put around the buildings of the city. Tarrésʼ son inherited the business and after merging with another prestigious potter, he moved to ronda de Sant Pere, 11. In 1953 the last restoration of the Tarrés building took place, which did not undergo more changes until it was destroyed, in 2005.
The site in Raval is one of the eleven places where students of Archaeology of the UB can take their practice mandatory subjects. These sites are places around Catalonia and cover all periods: the sites in Abric del Xicotó (Alòs de Balaguer) and Can Sadurní (Begues) are from Prehistory; as well as the Iberian site of Puig Castellar (Santa Coloma de Gramenet). Camp de les Lloses (Tona) and Torre Llauder (Mataró) are from the Roman period; and Santa Margarida (Martorell), lʼEsquerda (Roda de Ter) and the castles and monastery in Alguaire are sites from medieval periods. Excavations in Born (Barcelona) belong to the modern period, while the site in the Faculty of Geography and History is framed within the late modern period, as well as the excavation in Vilalba dels Arcs.