Tornar

A museum dedicated to the history of housing in 20th-century Barcelona

10/03/2023 - 11:45 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

The MUHBA Bon Pastor opens its doors, a museum of one of the cheap houses in this working-class neighbourhood.

The MUHBA Bon Pastor is now a reality. This project, which has been made possible thanks to the cooperation established between the Barcelona Museum of History, the people of the neighbourhood and other social agents who work on the land every day, has as its main objective to raise awareness of the history of housing in Barcelona during the 20th century and to do so from the periphery. To this end, ten of the seventeen houses that form part of a villa in the working-class neighbourhood of Bon Pastor have been museumed. These houses were built in 1929. They are single-family houses set in a row and directly facing the street, a fact that facilitated relations in the neighbourhood and a great deal of social and political activity.

Of the ten houses converted into museums, four show the struggle for housing in the city, and four more show how people lived in Bon Pastor and the evolution of the interiors of the houses from the time they were built until 2017. The other two show general aspects of the themes represented, as well as having spaces for community and civic use. Here you will find the exhibition Housing the Majorities, 1860-2010, which shows how housing has been a constant challenge in the contemporary city, and explains that the deficiencies of housing for the working classes have been a problem shared by many large cities around the world. As for the exhibition Living in the cheap houses. Bon Pastor, 1929-2010, together with the restitution of the heritage, it provides an insight into the key periods in the history of a neighbourhood that is a magnificent example of the evolution of the city from the point of view of housing and social cohesion in the neighbourhoods over the course of the twentieth century.

This local facility, inaugurated on 11 March 2023, is co-managed by the MUHBA (ICUB), the District of Sant Andreu and the Centre d’Estudis-Arxiu Vilabesòs, and financed by the Pla de barris. In addition to the exhibitions, there is also a school and citizens’ laboratory.

For more information, click this link.