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Corporate

The International Museum Day was cele-brated on 18 May in Barcelona under the theme “Museum and Memory”. Museums safeguard memory and tell stories, having in their collections essential objects for the memory of the communities where we live. These objects refect our natural and cultu-ral heritage, many are fragile, and others are endangered, and all must be carefully taken care of and kept in special facilities.

The International Museum Day 2011 is a good opportunity for discovering or redis-covering our individual and group memory. This is the case of FCC’s Machinery, Carts, and Carriage Museum in Barcelona, one of the best of its kind in Spain.

FCC owns an exceptional permanent ex-hibit of machinery, carts, and carriages that can be visited in the morning at Plaza Josep Pallach, number 8 in Barcelona. It shows part of FCC’s original machinery as well as historic means of transport.

FCC’s carts, carriages, and machinery form a real museum open to the public. The ex-hibit, in Sant Andreu as of the assignment

FCC and i machinery and carria museum

made by Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. owner of the collection, to the Club de Enganches y Equitación of Ca-talonia, was initially housed at one of the old carriage houses in Sant Andreu and was subsequently transferred to one of the halls in the Sant Andreu Theatre.

Carefully taken care of by Josep Piera I Jano and Antoni Piera I Capor, the collec-tion has grown thanks to contributions and the addition of other collections, such the one formerly owned by Bertand I Serra which his heirs donated to Barcelona’s City Council. This collection has become one of the best examples of transport and life at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.

In the third part of the nineteenth century, the Piera family, established in the former village of Sants, engaged in long-distance transport of merchandise by means of wagons, mainly transporting silk and other textiles to the city of Valladolid, a trip that at that time took 90 days.

In 1893, the Piera family participated in the founding of the company Piera Cortinas and Campanas, S.A. Transport and pro-

jects were the main lines of activities of this company. In July 1990, it founded Fomento de Obras y Construcciones, S.A. which, as its name indicates, engaged in construc-tion, although paying special attention to projects which construction required the use of carts and carriages, such as the construction of the Tibidabo-Barcelona rai-lway.

In 1913, the local authorities of Barcelona awarded the company the city’s cleaning concession and later the waste collection services.

To carry out this activity, it was necessary to have many carts and carriages which, for many years, was the frst in collection in Cataluña.

Thanks to the dedication and apprecia-tion of Jose Piera I Jano and Antoni Piera I Capar for horses and carriages that it was possible to create the Carriage Museum over the years and with many efforts.

Over 50 carts and carriages and more than 500 accessory elements and clothing can be viewed at this museum, all of which comprise a harmonious and complete co-llection, an example of a transport system that is part of our history and which is con-sidered one of the best of its kind in Spain.

International M

The exhibit is a complete collection

of ancient FCC machinery