Barcelona & Catalonia Cinderellas

In 1958 the Centre Excursionista del Vallès, a trekking club of Sabadell (20 km N of Barcelona) issued a mini-sheet of 9 ruletted cinderellas to celebrate its 50th anniversary Printed in different colours, and written in the then compulsory Spanish language, it shows some Catalan mountains and country landscapes.











Cinderellas show #: 1 (Sant Llorenç de Munt), 3 (Montserrat) & 4 (Montseny) mountains in Central Catalonia; #:2 (Els Encantats), 9 (Aneto)& 10 (la Molina) mountains and landscapes on the Pyrenees; #: 8 the Pedraforca on the pre-Pyrenees range; # 5 & 6 Sant Cugat del Vallès XII century Monastery, close to Sabadell.

Note: "Vallès" (coming from the Catalan word "Vall", Valley in English) is an area between the two mountain ranges (coastal and pre-coastal) that run paralel to Catalan coastline. It's divided in two "comarques": (plural of "comarca" our traditional country division, roughly equivalent to English shire)"Vallès Oriental" or Eastern (capital: Granollers) and "Vallès Occidental" or Western (capitals in Sabadell and Terrassa).

Just to have everything also here:

In 1958 the Centre Excursionista del Vallès, a trekking club of Sabadell (20 km N of Barcelona) issued a mini-sheet of 9 ruletted cinderellas to celebrate its 50th anniversary Printed in different colours, and written in the then compulsory Spanish language, it shows some Catalan mountains and country landscapes. Some of the cinderellas were overprinted with a text (in Spanish) to advertise the philatelic exhibition held on the club premises from October 11th to 19th 1958.





Cinderellas show #: 1 (Sant Llorenç de Munt), 3 (Montserrat) & 4 (Montseny) mountains in Central Catalonia; #:2 (Els Encantats), 9 (Aneto)& 10 (la Molina) mountains and landscapes on the Pyrenees; #: 8 the Pedraforca on the pre-Pyrenees range; # 5 & 6 Sant Cugat del Vallès XII century Monastery, close to Sabadell.

Roman civilisation has a capital importance for Catalonia. Romans, landed in Empuries (Northern Catalonia) during the Second Punic War (218 BC). They were to remain in Catalonia up to 476 AD. This long contact with Romans(the longest outside Italy!) has left us our language (Catalan), the basis of our ancestral right, many monuments, most towns and cities (among them our capital)and a very Latin (on the European meaning of the word) way of living.

Two mini-sheets issued in October 1980, showing some Roman monuments in Catalonia:

Barcino (today's Barcelona) was such a Roman city, that even had a recorded Olympic champion. It was in 129 AD, his name was Lucius Minicius Natatalis, and won the chariots race on the 227th Olympic Games held (as usual!) in Olympia.
As I know, Barcelona is one of the few cities that have both hosted Modern Olympic Games and have a known Old Olympics champion. The other two are: Athens (off course!) and Rome (Nero, at least).

Cinderella (overprinted "mostra", sample) showing a mosaic depicting 4 horses Roman chariot, found near Girona (NE Catalonia)

On April 6th 1933 it was issued a cinderella booklet (13 x 19 cm)with the title "Carnet de Segells de Catalunya" (Catalonia's Stamp Booklet). Printed by "Edicions Varia" (Barcelona) and priced 0.20 pesseta (166 pta= 1 €)






It contained two panes of 8 cinderellas:







As well as 12 pages with poems, tales, etc. Amongst them there were the first crosswords ever made in Catalan.

More superb Catalonia Cindys shown while I've been away.....some breathtaking stuff too.
None more so than the sheet of labels of Cursus' avatar.....truly drool inducing. How can I get hold of one of those !!?

Well done once again for such an amazing thread...or should I call it a book !

Londonbus1

Going back to Catalonia Stamps Booklet, I have what I believe is a trial:
It's somewhat smaller: 16 x 10,7 cm, and has just 8 pages (instead of 12)
The layout is similar, although the printed price is 0.15 pta (with a 0.20 pta overprint!).
It's dated just "Gener (January) 1933.
The stamps have umperforated edges and the printing is worse than the "normal" stamps.
On the 8 stamps first pane you can see politics (the first is the then President of Catalonia, Francesc Macià), a former president (Enric Prat de la Riba), poets (Josep Carner), writters (Joaquim Ruyra), play writters (Josep M. de Sagarra) musicians (Enric Morera) and a linguist (Pompeu Fabra, Modern Catalan's Grammar father). Also a propaganda stamp from Barcelona's tourism board.
On the second pane you can see some Catalonia landmarks: Costa Brava, Catalan Parliament, Pyrenees (Sanctuary of Nuria), Barcelona Catalonia square, Montserrat sanctuary, Tarragona's cathedral and a view of Girona.

Between the two stamp pans you read "To divulge Catalunya stamps is to carry on a very patriotic work"

The Album de Catalunya stamps, were issued in three colours: brown, blue and olive green:





Here, you can see two Antoni Gaudí works: Park Güell (at left) and Temple de la Sagrada Familia (as it looked on 1933).

The Album de Catalunya stamps were to be affixed on an album:






This contained 42 (21.5 x 27 cm) pages numbered 1 to 40 plus two more off-series, for Catalan magazines and propaganda. Each page have space for 10 cinderellas and, below that, there's a brief description. This is lacking on the two off-series pages.



Note: I think I'll stop showing images of the items related to the Album de Catalunya, as I don't think it deserves much interest from our friends. So, perhaps is better to change a little the focus of the thread.

I disagree,
the degree of interest is secondary to the record of philately
you are engaging in. In years to come this may be of vital interest to someone.
Of course, it remains your decision :)

"To divulge Catalunya stamps is to carry on a very patriotic work"

..and you are doing a fine job of that :)

Thank You very much Rod, for your encouragement :). It's, actually, the time to make the world to know a little more about Catalonia ("Catalunya", for us)

So, let's go ahead...

As I already stated, the Album Catalunya, has 42 pages, each one holding 10 stamps/cinderellas. If they come in three colours, that makes 1098 items to look for.
Actually, as far as I know, only 366 stamps are to be found. Of the scheduled 27 stamp booklets, only 23 were issued. Something, stopped the printing early in September 1933. Times were troublesome in Catalonia, by then...

The 42 pages give an idealised view of 1933 Catalonia:

1.- Playwrights
2.- Writers
3.- Sculptors
4.- Theater actors
5.- Grammars
6.- Musicians
7.- Novelists
8 to 15.- Catalan Parliament members
16.- Fathers of the Country
17.- Painters
18.- Poets
19.- Modern Poets
20.- Prose writers
21.- Barcelona
22.- Costa Brava (North Catalan coast)
23.- Catalonia country churches
24.- Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government) Palace
25.- Girona (North Catalonia capital)
26.- Guilleries (an area of Central Catalonia)
27 & 28.- Catalan institutions
29.- Lleida (West Catalonia capital)
30.- Montserrat (our holy mountain)
31.- Montseny (a well known mountain in Eastern Catalonia)
32.- Barcelona monuments
33.- Nuria (a Pyrenean sanctuary)
34.- Gaudi's Park Güell, in Barcelona
35.- Montjuïc (a hill park in Barcelona)
36.- Catalan Parliament building
37.- Poblet (Cister order monastery, where Catalan kings are buried)
38.- s'Agaro (an specially nice place in Catalan coast)
39.- Tarragona (Roman capital of Catalonia)
40.- Barcelona surroundings
41 & 42 .- Catalan magazines

Although it lacks the images of the poverty and slums (much worse than today's), it gives an idea of the Catalonia 1933 cultivated people were aiming for. The choosing of buildings, areas and people, gives an idea of the value standards of the time. Note, that there's no a single mention to sport...Inconceivable in today's Catalonia!

I'll show just a few of cinderellas depicting some the writers and artists, as well as the best known landmarks of Catalonia.

For me is symptomatic that cinderella # 1.1 has the photograph of Josep Maria de Sagarra (Barcelona, 1894 - 1961) a very famous (by then, but also already) playwright ("dramaturg" says on the stamp), poet, journalist and intellectual. And also a "play boy", as he was wealthy and liked very much women...
We still can recall some of his poems. It's hard to believe that an intellectual, could be so famous today.

Thanks to everyone for the thorough and exciting news about Catalonia. I am a Barca fan and also Lorca.I had no idea of the depth that this area of collecting covers. I will continue to follow closely. Thanks.

Hi Cursus! Have you all the stamps of Segells de Catalunya,or is true that collection was stopped without 52 of them??Why??