Natural histories in Ciutat Vella (Barcelona)

Natural history experienced a great boom in Barcelona during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It began to differentiate itself in disciplines – such as botany, zoology, geology – and went from being practiced by amateurs to being a more or less professionalized activity. At the same time, in the public sphere, some scientific controversies were witnessed at this time that illustrate the tensions between Creation and Evolution and the different conceptions of nature that were then in the city. "Natural histories in Ciutat Vella" will delve into a past time of the city to tell various stories of objects, naturalists and urban spaces: among others, we will visit a museum where a piece of animal from before the Universal Flood was exhibited, we will study natural history with forbidden books and we will enter a shop of dead animals that seemed almost alive.

Made by Laura Valls