Catalunya mar enllà. Tres segles de marina catalana (s. XVIII-XX)

Catalunya Beyond the Sea. Three Centuries of Catalan Maritime History (18th-20th c.) aims to explain how a small country with scarce natural resources and a small population at the beginning of the 18th century became an industrial power in southern Europe in the 19th century, and how maritime trade with America contributed to this. The exhibition also shows how trade and shipbuilding helped drive the great transformation and modernisation of Catalonia in the 19th century, and reflects on how people's relationship with the sea has changed.The exhibition starts in the early 18th century, when after the War of the Spanish Succession Catalonia had all its institutions of government abolished, was an impoverished country and was punished by war. But within a couple of generations Catalonia experienced a demographic and economic growth that allowed it not only to emerge from stagnation but even to take a leap forward. From the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1758, Antoni de Capmany, now considered a pioneer of European economic historiography, demonstrated through his historical studies that Catalonia was a country with a deeply rooted tradition of seafaring, commerce and industry, and that this enterprising spirit, now supported by a very dynamic productive structure, could make it possible to create a new cycle of progress and generate wealth throughout the territory. The country's maritime past will become a still very valuable asset, and progress will once again arrive by sea.Among the most emblematic pieces from the Museu Marítim's collection on display are the painting Nouvelle description de la Fameuse Ville de Barcelone cappitalle de la province de Catalogne (19th century); the frigate model Mataró, dated to the last quarter of the 18th century; the frigate model Barcelona, from the second half of the 19th century; a 18th-century merchandise transport furniture box; the merchant frigate model Diputación, from the second half of the 19th century; a model of the Ictíneo II, made by the Museu Marítim workshop (1960); a spectacular model of the floating dock and port deposit (1929); the painting Moll de Sant Bertran, Port de Barcelona, by A. Casals (1912); the model of the mail steamer Infanta Isabel de Borbón, from 1913; the Catalan barca or llagut Jean et Marie, among others.