Municipal fonds

We manage and conserve municipal records from various historical periods:

• The fonds of the old municipality of Sant Martí de Provençals, from 1740 to 1897. Earlier documents were lost as a result of a fire during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1705.
• Barcelona City Council fonds from 1900 to the present day, although most of the records date from 1984.

With regard to the former, the oldest document conserved is a baggage regulation issued by Philip V and printed in Madrid on 10 March, 1740. However, the largest part of the records begin in 1820.

Aside from the administrative documents, which encompass the minutes books of the full council meetings, we highlight the 4,148 files of private building-work licences, which enable us to find out what kind of private work or infrastructure was granted or denied during those years. It is very interesting, for example, to see the problems of extending the Expansion (Eixample) Plan to Sant Martí de Provençals, due to the council’s efforts to control plan management.  

Besides that, we have the file on building the Sagrada Família church and a private house on Carrer del Consell de Cent according to plans drawn up by Antoni Gaudí.

The oldest documents in the Barcelona City Council fonds are from the old Deputy Mayor’s Office and Municipal Council, though they are of nominal value as neither body had many functions. There are also documents transferred by the central areas to the districts, mainly consisting of the background series on industrial activities and inspections.

The latest chronological stage began in 1984 with the decentralisation and citizen participation project, and the new territorial division of Barcelona into ten districts, which gives the Districts more powers.  The biggest series and most consulted by members of the public are business activity licences, licences for major and minor works, and urban development projects.

Private fonds

We keep the records of 21 companies, and draw attention, given their interest, to the fonds of Saladrigas Freixa (1900-1977), Farinera Sant Jaume, SA (1892-1991) and a considerable number of the factories that had been located to the site of today’s Vila Olímpica.

The Saladrigas Freixa fonds were donated to the Archives and consist of 15.13 metres of mainly accounting records and receipts for personal and family expenses between 1900 and 1977.

As for the Farinera Sant Jaume fonds, which takes up 11.76 metres, it consists of part of the records of this food-sector company for the years 1892 to 1991, with accounts, tax and correspondence series.

Also of interest are the cooperative fonds. For example, we keep the L’Artesana fonds for 1921 to 1981, notably the minutes books series (1926-80), personnel management (1948-81) and sections such as the choral society, hiking and chess, among others. Another is the Pau i Justícia (Peace and Justice) fonds with documents from 1900 to 1987 on organisation, finances, personnel management, the members, the sections (dances and festivals, cinema, choral, education, chess, theatre, hiking and mountaineering, swimming, sardanas, etc.) and others generated by its activity as a workers’ housing promoter.

Finally, there is the La Formiga Martinenca cooperative fonds, consisting of 11 metres of documents from 1903 to 1976. The important sections are those on general administration, finances, supplies and the cooperative’s sections (recreational and cultural group, theatre, choral, cycling group, social work, a grocer’s shop and commercial activities)

You can also consult various personal fonds at the Sant Martí District Municipal Archives, including those of Jean Hébrard, the technical director of Fundición de Antimonio, SA (FASA); Josep Rocher Téllez, president of the El Clot - Camp de l’Arpa Residents’ Association; Claudi Vidal Puig, a businessman with a business on Passatge de Sicília (the old Icària industrial neighbourhood); and Esteve Bosch, a local photographer.

Collections

Our highlights include the Melé Sisters collection, with 2,514 photographs from 1925 to 1963, with images of everyday life in the Clot neighbourhood and other parts of Catalonia. Another is the set of 435 photographs from Talleres Oliva-Artés, SA (a textile machinery manufacturer) and there is also a collection of 1,920 posters from 1919 to 2015.

We also have an auxiliary library, as well as magazines and periodicals produced in Sant Martí which, in many cases, have come from residents’ associations and other entities.

If you want to find out all the information we have at the Sant Martí Archives, consult the fonds table.