Letters to the Three Kings from 1952
Publication date of the document: 15/12/2022
Year of the original document: 1952
During the 1951-52 Christmas season, hundreds of Barcelona children addressed their letters to the Three Kings, and in particular to the “Three Kings of Radio Barcelona”. On that station, the Historical Archives of the City broadcast their popular radio bulletin Barcelona, historical information. For this reason, the Archive’s records have conserved nearly 300 of those children’s letters as part of a correspondence series. They are described in the Archive’s online catalogue.
All the letters were sent during the 1951-52 Christmas season, during the months of December and January. In most cases, the envelopes in which they were sent have also been conserved. Most of the messages were signed with the first name and surnames of the senders, while others are anonymous. Some children included drawings in their letters, illustrating what they were asking for, while others only offered wish lists of toys from the senders and even for other members of the family. The material used for these letters are varied: some use quality paper and envelopes while others are pieces of more modest paper. For example, one of the letters was written by a child whose family ran a butcher’s shop at No. 118 Carrer de Ramón y Cajal, in the Gràcia neighbourhood. The boy, Carlos, asked King Gaspar for “a train set and what you like best”.
The series of correspondence is a factitious collection made up of documents of a personal, economic, patrimonial, family and political nature, from personalities and city residents. This Historical Archives of the City (AHCB) collection includes documents from personalities who are of historical relevance, not only in the city, but also in Catalonia, such as Francesc Macià, Lluís Companys and Ventura Gassol, among others, as well as documents concerning the everyday lives of anonymous Barcelona residents, like many of these letters to the Three Kings.
The collaboration between the Historical Archives of the City and Radio Barcelona became extraordinarily intense when, in April 1944, the municipal centre, then called the Municipal Institute of City History, initiated its weekly radio bulletin, Barcelona, divulgación histórica [Barcelona, historical information]. Periodically, the Archive’s specialists – led by their emblematic director, Agustí Duran i Sanpere – and other historians and cultural communicators were invited to captivate listeners with a theme concerning Barcelona’s history. In the words of the programme’s editors, the idea was to popularise a passion for the city among all audiences. “The current abundance of publications relating to Barcelona’s past”, affirmed Duran i Sanpere in 1944, “reveals a favourable climate for the efforts made by the Municipal Institute of City History to attain, albeit in an informative way, a clarification of past events, the rectification of traditional errors and a return to current bibliography of pages that were forgotten too quickly. Some other plans will be developed through this publication, all geared towards obtaining the maximum dissemination of local history, as a way of fostering love for the city, an essential part of this country”, he stated at the presentation of the first volume of the book collection Barcelona, divulgación histórica. During the years the programme was on air, between 1944 and 1973, they broadcast a total of 1,488 radio bulletins. Among its records from private organisations, the Historical Archives of the City also conserves the programme relating to the Friends of Historical and Monumental Barcelona, a Union of Barcelona Radio Listeners’ group, created as a result of the Archive’s Radio Barcelona broadcasts.
Decades later, the Municipal Archive now makes podcasts about the history of Barcelona on the internet, based on its document collection. The podcast series is entitled Barcelona AMB Paraula d’Arxiu [Barcelona AMB, the Archive’s Word], which has been recognised with awards, such as Best Script at the first edition of the Sonor Awards, promoted by the La Mira magazine with the collaboration of Catalunya Ràdio. Barcelona AMB Paraula d’Arxiu began broadcasting in June 2021, with the aim of providing information about the document collections conserved in the various Barcelona Municipal Archive centres, based on a totally innovative format. Each episode revolves around a specific document or theme, such as the Calaix de sastre, by the Baró de Maldà, or the Llibre de les fonts, both of which are conserved at the AHCB.
Further information:
AHCB Correspondence collection
Inventory of the AHCB’s radio bulletin collection for Barcelona, Divulgación Histórica:
The AHCB document collection “Friends of Historical and Monumental Barcelona, a Union of Barcelona Radio Listeners’ group”:
The Barcelona Municipal Archives podcast Barcelona AMB paraula d’arxiu:
