On 30 November, the exhibit “ARAN ME FECIT. Des mèstres constructors ara recerca deth patrimòni sacre” [Of Master Builders in Search of Sacred Heritage] was inaugurated in Sant Joan d’Arties. The exhibition was co-organised by the General Council of the Aran Valley, the Aran Valley Museums, the School of Architecture at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, the Diocese of Urgell and the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture. Participants in last Friday’s event included Carlos Barrera Sánchez, head of the General Council of the Aran Valley; Josep M. Mauri, vicar general; and Clara Arbués, the Diocesan delegate for Heritage.

The exhibit comprises a selection of materials (plans, photographs and historical documentation) on the 42 churches and chapels in the Aran Valley. All such resources have been displayed alongside work by students from the School of Architecture at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and include the results of research projects performed by the Patriarq Research Group, directed by the director of the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, Josep Lluís i Ginovart.

Josep Lluís i Ginovart has also served on the Editorial Board, which has created a catalogue, published by the General Council of the Aran Valley and the Aran Valley Museums, to show the current state of the Aran Valley’s sacred heritage, with articles by leading experts in the field of movable and immovable heritage. Both professor Ginovart and lecturer Mónica López Piquer contributed articles to this volume. “The catalogue will bring readers up to speed about the most recent research being performed in the Aran Valley on the region’s vast sacred heritage, with contributions from numerous researchers from universities, museums and other Catalan and international institutions,” pointed out Josep Lluís i Ginovart. The book has been published in Aranese, with translations in Catalan, Spanish, French and English printed alongside the original texts.