27/06/2014

Notes from Conference on 18th-century Catalan Town Published

On 19 April 2013, the village of La Fatarella (Tarragona Province) presented the book resulting from the international conference held there in April 2008. The conference was attended by more than 150 people and represented the culmination of the research work done on the way towns were organized in the early 18th century in Catalonia.

In the words of Josep Serrano, a professor in the UIC Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences and the coordinator of the conference, the topic under study "was the town in the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, based on a specific case that helps us frame the question and compare it to similar institutions in regions near Catalonia".

Specifically, when the conference was held, La Fatarella was chosen due to its original nature. According to town historians, in 1705, the university in La Fatarella passed municipal ordinances that were the last ones put in place before the Nueva Planta decrees were implemented to do away with Catalan institutions, charters and privileges. Prof. Serrano explained that "the fact that they did it here was not a coincidence, given that the land near the Ebro River formed part of one of the territories with the most local and regional legal codes".

The book was presented by Sixto Sánchez-Lauro, a professor at the Universitat de Barcelona and a specialist, like Serrano, in the history of law and political and legal institutions. Sánchez-Lauro summarized each of the works that make up the publication.

The Vice President of the Provincial Council also spoke on behalf of the President of the La Fatarella Study Centre.

Finally, Prof. Serrano announced that the conference would open a new chapter in 2014 in Arnes, where talk will focus on 18th-century villages "after the Nueva Planta decrees were passed and based on some relevant events in the village of Arnes before the Crown of Aragon about some municipal charges introduced in that century”. Prof Serrano concluded by saying, "The conference will also be international and should produce magnificent results just like at La Fatarella".