To mark the 40th anniversary of the first democratic municipal elections held in Barcelona (3 April 1979), the Barcelona Municipal Archives have organised this exhibition to recover the memory of some decisive years for neighbourhood protests, as well as political, social and cultural demands that shaped the city we have today.

The exhibition shows Barcelona before and after the first municipal elections. What the city and some of its neighbourhoods were like coming out of the dictatorship; the formation of the first democratic municipal government; what the new city would be like with the modernisation projects, organisational and administrative decentralisation, urban planning challenges, the outburst of freedom on the streets, popular culture movements and so on.

All these aspects are reflected in this virtual exhibition to show the first steps taken to make Barcelona a modern, cultural, democratic city.