Study confirms high quality of life in Igualada

A ranking of the quality of life in 643 Spanish municipalities has recently been presented by the University of Oviedo (region: Asturias) and Igualada (comarca: Anoia) - in the 43th position -, has the best results of Penedès.

Interestingly, none of the 10 biggest cities in Spain make it to the top-50 of this ranking – Barcelona holds the 75th and Madrid the 246th position. Pamplona (Navarra) holds the 1st place and la Rioja, Basque Country (Euskadi) and Navarra are the regions (comunidades autónomas, in Spanish) with the best average results. On the other end of the scale you find Andalusia.

Catalonia as a total is in the middle, but not only Igualada ended up in the top-50. There you also find Banyoles (7), Ripoll (15), Olot (19), Sant Cugat del Vallès (22), Girona (23), Mollerussa (28), Barberà del Vallès (32) and Vic (41).

The analysis was based on data from 2001 and comprises all municipalities with more than 10.000 inhabitants for which the researchers have been able to compile data. Aspects like the socioeconomic conditions, social services, housing, transport, environment, labour market, health, culture, leisure, education and security have been compared using an internationally recognized model, starting from DEA (data envelopment analysis) and then adjusting with qualitative data as of VEA (value efficiency analysis).

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Personally, I assume that Igualada would not have reached the same relative position, had the comparison been made with current data. I do not have the 2001 unemployment statistics but assume that the situation was much better than what we see in 2011.

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Find here the original paper: Quality of life ranking of Spanish municipalities

Read more in Catalan: Anoia Diari

Anoia worst hit by forest fires

Anoia is the comarca in the province of Barcelona which has seen the highest number of forest fires this summer. However, of a total of 19 fires, only 4 have burnt more than 0,1 hectares and even the worst one – in Veciana on August 8 -, resulted in damages limited to 6 hectares of trees and farmland.

Compared with the last nine years in Anoia, the number of fires is among the highest, but the area affected is lower than average. On a sad note, as many as 45% of the fires were lit deliberately.

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Read more in Catalan: Anoia Diari

Successful edition of the fair of Igualada

The 58th edition of the multisectorial fair of Igualada (Anoia) took place September 22-25 and - in spite of the crisis -, one exhibitor saw it as “the best one over the last 12 years”. The figure which most unambiguously proves the success this time is the number of cars sold at the fair – 102 vehicles compared to 62 last year.

The number of visitors grew to 31.600 – an increase with 1.300 versus last year. Of these, 56% came from Igualada, 36% from the rest of Anoia, 4% from other parts of the province of Barcelona and the remaining 4% from other places.

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Rear more in Catalan: Anoia Diari

Romans headhunting gladiators at Calafell’s Ciutadella Ibèrica

On September 24, the open air museum and excavation site Ciutadella Ibèrica hosted the fourth edition of Calafell’s (Baix Penedès) live role play (joc de rol en viu). Only 50 people could take part, so all participants had had to sign up in advance. The plot took them back to an imagined year 194 B.C. where they were invited to prove their fighting skills to a group of Roman merchants who were selecting gladiators for the Games of Rome. The role play went on for 13 hours and was spiced up with side stories of love and murder.

The event was organized by the ajuntament of Calafell with the intention to let young people learn local history in a didactic and entertaining way.

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Read more in Catalan: 3deVuit

Related earlier posts: Record old grape found at Calafell’s Ciutadella Ibèrica

Penedès Agenda - October 2011

This month the agenda consists of two parts; first Catalan Folk Culture and then Other Events.

Catalan Folk Culture (cultura popular): human towers, Falcons and a festa major

September 28 - October 2: Segur de Calafell (Baix Penedès): Festa Major de Sant Miquel. Read more in Catalan

October 1: Dia de la Colla: Falcons de Vilanova, in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf) - The performance starts at 18:00 with a parade through the town, starting in plaça de Sant Antoni, and will be followed by a full performance once they reach plaça de les Cols (approximately at 19:00). Guest team: Falcons del País del Cava. Read more in Catalan

October 8: At 18:30 in plaça de les Cols, Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf). Diada Castellera Albert Salvany: Human Towers by: Bordegassos de Vilanova, Castellers de la Vila de Gràcia and Xiquets de Reus. Read more in Catalan

October 8: At 18:30 in la Bisbal del Penedès (Baix Penedès). Milenari: Human Towers by: Castellers de Vilafranca. Read more in Catalan

October 12: At 12:30 in the plaça de la Vila of Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès): Diada Jove. Human Towers by Colla Jove Xiquets de Vilafranca, Bordegassos de Vilanova and Tirallongues de Manresa. Read more in Catalan

October 16: At 13:00 in plaça Vella of el Vendrell (Baix Penedès): Fira de Santa Terèsa: Human Towers by Nens del Vendrell, Colla Jove dels Xiquets de Tarragona, Colla Joves Xiquets de Valls and Colla Vella dels Xiquets deValls. Read more in Catalan

October 22: At 18:30 in Cap de Vila of Sitges (Garraf): Dia de la Colla: Human Towers by Colla Jove de Castellers de Sitges, Castellers de Vilafranca and Castellers de Sants. Read more in Catalan

October 23: At 12:00 in the plaça de Pius XII of Igualada (Anoia): Diada dels Moixiganguers. Human Towers by Moixiganguers d’Igualada, Castellers de Lleida and Sagals d’Osona. Read more in Catalan

October 30: At 12:00 in the plaça de la Vila of Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès): Diada del Roser. Human Towers by Xicots de Vilafranca, Moixiganguers de Igualada and one more guest team. Read more in Catalan

Other events

October 6-16, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Sitges, Garraf) – horror in all its aspects. Read more in English

October 7-9, Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (Alt Penedès): CavaTast - the annual cava and gastronomy festival and trade fair. Read more in Spanish

October 13-16, el Vendrell (Baix Penedès): The Santa Teresa Trade Fair (Fira de Santa Teresa) – a multisectoral trade fair with special areas especially dedicated to ceramics and beer. Read more in Catalan

October 15: The day when Lluís Companys is commemorated throughout Catalonia. In Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf) the ceremony takes place in the Rambla de Lluís Companys. Find here an earlier post about the role of this politician in Catalan history.

October 23: at 11:00 and starting in the plaça del Mercat of Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf): Cursa popular – the town's annual running competition. Read more in Catalan

October 30: all around Penedès and the rest of Catalonia: Castanyada. The evening before Tots Sants is celebrated with grilled chestnuts (castanyes), sweet potatoes (moniatos), panellets (cookies especially made for the occasion) and muscat wine (moscatell).

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The Penedès Agenda is a collection of events which I recommend to foreigners (expats or tourists) who want to explore Penedès or events which I consider important from a – highly subjective – international perspective. It is biased towards the comarca Garraf (Vilanova i la Geltrú and Sitges) but also covers Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and Anoia.

The agenda posts are up-dated whenever I learn about new things. To the greatest extent possible will I link back to official pages for information on time and locations and cannot guarantee the correctness of the data presented. Feel free to inform me about events which you think would fit in here, either by writing a comment or contacting on twitter: @wirdheim

Sitges Film Festival presents the 2011 commercials

The annual Sitges (Garraf) International Fantastic Film Festival (Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Sitges) will be celebrated October 6-16 and has just presented the promotion videos for this year’s edition.

The central theme 2011 is Artificial Intelligence as a tribute to the tenth anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s movie with the same name and the idea behind the commercial spot is for the spectator to ask himself who of two identical characters is human and who is a robot.



The second spot, inspired by the general spirit of the festival – imagination and horror – has the title Reality Kills Us. Here those who watch it will easily see the connection with the hardships we all face due to the ongoing financial crisis.



For the tenth year in a row, the commercials of the Sitges Film Festival were created by the advertising agency China under the creative leadership of Rafa Antón.

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Here you have the YouTube channel of Sitges Film Festival with a lot of the historic promotion spots.
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Read more in English
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Find here an earlier post on Sitges Film Festival 2011

Arboç suffers fatal human tower accident

Minyons de l’Arboç (Baix Penedès) have lost one of their founding members – 74-year old Ramon Rovira – in a tragic accident during a human tower exhibition in Montblanc (Tarragona province). The casteller was supporting another team – Castellers d’Esplugues - to build a 2d7 (torre de 7), when the construction collapsed and Ramon Rovira got a hard hit on his neck. This resulted in such serious damage on the spinal cord, that his life could not be saved.

Now the whole of Arboç is in grief, since this man was a well-known personality and involved in several aspects of local cultural life. At the same time, Ramon Rovira’s family had expressed their wish for the human tower exhibitions of this weekend to take place as planned; so they did and all of them were opened with pillars of mourning (pilars de dol) in honour of the dead casteller.

For whatever it is worth, my thoughts are with Ramon Rovira’s family.

Although castells are truly spectacular and might seem dangerous, fatal accidents are extremely rare and this is the first time in modern human tower history that the victim is a person in the base (pinya).

Last time the world of castellers lived a similar tragedy was in 2006, when 12-year-old Mariona Galindo died from the injuries she suffered when falling off the stem of a 4d9 assembled by her team, Capgrossos de Mataró. That incident speeded up the introduction of helmets for the children on the top levels.

After the latest accident, the co-ordinating body of all castellers team (CCCC - Coordindadora de les Colles Castelleres de Catalunya) has issued a statement stressing that a continuous process to improve safety standards is already in place. It also highlights that during the last 15 years, the number of human towers which collapse has been halved and now represent 3,5% of the approximately 7.000 castells built every season.

How Ramon Rovira could receive such a bad hit is being thoroughly investigated and we can rest accured that CCCC will come back with additional recommendations on how to develop and – above all – stick to already established safety rules.

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Read more in Catalan – Ara and 3deVuit

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Find here the first statement issued on this matter by CCCC (in Catalan).

Sitges has Catalonia's most expensive housing market

Back in 2005, Sitges (Garraf) joined Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès in what can be described as an exclusive club of Catalan municipalities where the average selling price for existing homes was above 4.000 Euro per square meter. Then we entered the ongoing financial crisis, with the negative effects it has had on real estate prices, and still - as of Q2 2011 statistics from Idealista.com - housing in Sitges stands out for still selling at € 4.253. In the whole of Spain, only Donostia/San Sebastián is more expensive (€ 4.719), while comparable prices in Barcelona and Sant Cugat have dropped to € 3.752 and € 3.681, respectively.

To explain the resilience of Sitges, real estate agents point to the high share of European expats (21% of the local population), the town’s impeccable reputation as a tourist resort and its location near the Barcelona Prat Airport but also to its popularity in parts of the gay community with a high purchasing power.

Comprehensive price overviews are available at Idealista.com and here we can see that the equivalent  Q2 2011 prices in the rest of Penedès were € 2.356 in Vilanova i la Geltrú, € 1.881 in el Vendrell, € 1.726 in Vilafranca del Penedès and € 1.633 in Igualada.
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Read more in Spanish: El Periódico

Leading software developer locates in Vilanova

The Dutch group Service2Media – a leading software company which makes applications for smart phones and tablets, and which has CNN and Al Jazeera among its customers – will cover Spain, Southern Europe and Latin America from their new office in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf). The main arguments for selecting this location were the fact that the Mobile World Congress will stay in Barcelona, political efforts made both on the municipal level and by the Generalitat plus the existence of local UPC branch (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).

Service2Media will be based in the building Neàpolis and thereby add weight to the intended high-tech profile of this municipal centre. The operation will start with a work force of six people while one more position is reserved for the winner in a currently ongoing idea generation competition.
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Read more in Spanish (El País) or Catalan (Diari de Vilanova).

Drastic budget cuts in Vilanova

The CiU government ruling Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf) since the May municipal elections, has presented a so called shock plan to address the municipality’s debt and cash situation. Out of a € 113 million total debt, € 64 million is owed to banks, while € 25 million are outstanding payments to providers, with whom the local authorities currently allow themselves a 9 month credit term. Due to the saving plan, municipal services will move out from rented office spaces and civil servants who retire or go on unpaid maternity leave (excedència laboral) will not be substituted. Apart from this, the heavily indebted public company PIVSAM (Promoció Industrial Vilanova, SAM) will file for bankruptcy.

The former Tripartit government accuses CiU of exaggerating the situation and remind them that they rule in minority.
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Read more in Catalan: Diari de Vilanova and Vilanova Digital

Sitges among towns with primary care units closed during night

As a part of its savings plans, the CiU government of Catalonia has seen itself forced to revise the opening hours of 46 public primary health care units (CAP – Centre d’atenció primària). Those which do not receive enough patients or do not have sufficient analytical equipment will not any longer offer emergency service during the night. Instead patients are referred to the closest bigger hospital or the telephone based medical service Sanitat Respon (902 111 444).

In Penedès, this decision has had consequences in Sitges and Cubelles (both in Garraf) and in l’Arboç (Baix Pededès).

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Read more in Spanish: La Vanguardia

Cunit under pressure from Elena Salgado

The town council of Cunit (Baix Penedès) still has not presented the official closing of its 2010 financial balances to the Spanish government. In Spain, there are 2.514 municipalities in the same situation. Of these, 140 are located in Catalonia and while most of them are very small, Cunit stands out as being one of the few with more than 10.000 inhabitants.

In these cases, to put pressure on local politicians, Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado has threatened to - from October and until the books are sent in -, freeze the monthly transfers which the municipalities receive from the central government. Since these tend to make up 25% of the municipal budgets, such a move would have serious consequences for local cash flow.

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Read more in Catalan: Ara and 3deVuit

Third castellers team of Vilafranca proves its strength

Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès) has gained yet another proof of the strength of the local castellers culture. While Castellers de Vilafranca are unchallenged as the best team of Catalonia, Xicots de Vilafranca belong to the relatively few ones which regularly build human towers of eight levels (colles de vuit). To this we can now add Colla Jove Xiquets de Vilafranca - a team founded less than a year ago, but which have just carried out its first exhibition where it completed the “clàssica de 7” – three constructions on the difficulty grade of seven levels (4d7, 3d7 and 2d6) – a solid benchmark in the world of human towers.

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Read more in Catalan: Penedès Digital

The Penedès Agenda - September 2011

This month the agenda consists of two parts; first Catalan Folk Culture and then Other Events.

Catalan Folk Culture (cultura popular) - including human towers (castells) and town festivals (festa major)

September 7-8; in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (Alt Penedès): Festa Major la Fil·loxers. Read more in Catalan

September 11, in Cubelles (Garraf) – Diada de Catalunya and Festa de la Verema: Human towers by Bordegassos de Vilanova. Read more in Catalan

September 11 at 18:30, at plaça de la Vinya d’en Petaca, les Roquetes del Garraf – Diada de Catalunya: Human towers by Castellers de les Roquetes (!), Colla Jove dels Castellers de Sitges, Castellers d’Esplugues and Castellers de Castelldefels. Read more in Catalan

September 11 at 12:00, in Hostalets de Pierola (Anoia) – Diada de Catalunya: Human towers by Moixiganguers d’Igualada and Castellers de la Sagrada Familia (Barcelona). Read more in Catalan

September 11 at 12:00, in rambla la Girada of Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès) – Diada de Catalunya: Human towers by Colla Jove Xiquets de Vilafranca. Read more in Catalan

September 23-24: Sitges (Garraf), Festa Major Petita de Santa Tecla. Find some more information in Catalan here. As soon as I find this year’s program I will link to it here.

September 24 at 18:30, at Cap de Vila of Sitges – Santa Tecla. Human towers by Colla Jove Castellers de Sitges, Castellers de Sant Cugat and Colla dels Joves Xiquets de Valls. Read more in Catalan

September 25 at 12:30, in the plaça de la Vila of l’Arboç (Baix Penedès): Human towers by Minyons de l’Arboç and Xicots de Vilafranca. Read more in Catalan

September 28 - October 2: Festa Major de Sant Miquel, Segur de Calafell (Baix Penedès). Read more in Catalan

Other Events

September 11: The National Day of Catalonia - Diada de Catalunya – celebrated with official ceremonies all around Catalonia. In Vilanova i la Geltrú the acts of commemoration take place at the Monument to Francesc Macià, Rambla de la Pau. At 13:00 everybody is invited to join the circles of the Catalan dance Sardana.

September 16-18: Sitges celebrates its wine harvest festival – la Festa de la Verema. Find all information in English here. On Sunday, September 18, at 18:00 there is a spectacular grape treading competition, which at 19:00 will be followed by an opportunity to join the Catalan dance Sardana. Find here my post on the Verema 2009.

September 22-25: The multisectoral trade fair of Igualada (Anoia). Read more in Catalan

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The information on Festa de la Fil·loxera and the Trade Fair of Igualada was added only after the events had taken place. I am sorry for not having had 'discovered' them on time.
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The Penedès Agenda is a collection of events which I recommend to foreigners (expats or tourists) who want to explore Penedès or events which I consider important from a – highly subjective – international perspective. It is biased towards the comarca Garraf (Sitges and Vilanova) but also covers Alt Penedès, Baix Penedès and Anoia.

The agenda posts are up-dated whenever I learn about new things. To the greatest extent possible will I link back to official pages for information on time and locations and cannot guarantee the correctness of the data presented. Feel free to inform me about events which you think would fit in here, either by writing a comment or contacting on twitter: @wirdheim

Five extraordinary human towers during Sant Fèlix in Vilafranca

As so often, the day of human towers celebrated on August 30, as a part of the Festa Major in Vilafranca del Penedès (Alt Penedès), presented us with the most impressive human tower exhibition of the season.

The local team, Castellers de Vilafranca – who had just returned from their tour in India – unfortunately did not manage with their two main challenges for the day. Their 2 by 9 with only one single additional support ring (Td9f) fell apart before being crowned and the monster construction 3 by 10 (3d10fm) made the top child hesitate, and collapsed while being dismantled. In spite of this, "the green team" (els Verds) proved their extreme strength by completeing (descarregar) three of the technically most advanced constructions (gamma extra): they opened with their 25th 4 by 9 dismantled via a pillar (4d9fa), and followed up wiht a 2 by 9 with two additional support rings (Td9fm) and a pillar of 8 (Pd8fm). Except for that this team also completed a solid 4 by 9 (4d9f).



The Minyons de Terrassa had put on a brave face by, in the last days before Sant Fèlix, announcing that also they were practicing a construction of ten levels. However, since they did not manage to mobilize as many “shirts” as needed they had to lower their ambitions. During the exhibition they still completed one magnificent gamma extra construction – a 2 by 9 with two additional support rings (Td9fm) - and also a 4 by 9 (4d9f) where they demonstrated an amazing will power. Unfortunately, they were not successful with their pillar of 8 levels (Pd8fm) – it collapsed just a second before being crowned.



Also the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls drew a lot of applause this day by completing a gamma extra construction never seen in the plaça de la Vila of Vilafranca: an 9 by 8. Just imagine how many seasoned castellers you need to build a human tower of eight levels with nine people per level! Apart from this they completed a 4 by 9 (4d9f) and 3 by 9 (3d9f), but saw the top of their final pillar of seven levels (pd7) fall off right after it was crowned.

The fourth team, Colla dels Joves Xiquets de Valls, completed a 2 by 8 (Td8f), but saw both their 3 by 9 (3d9f) and their 4 by 9 (4d9f) collapse after having been crowned.

As always, la diada castellera de Sant Fèlix was a highly popular event, although taking place on a Tuesday this year. At the start of the exhibition, several thousands of people squeezed together in this emblematic square for castells and many of them were still there when it ended some good four hours later.

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Read more in Spanish - la Vanguardia - and in Catalan – Ara and el 3 de Vuit.

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I do not yet master my camera, which is the reason why I missed "the green team’s" first 4d9fa - my personal favourite of all human towers!

In my post on la diada de Sant Fèlix from 2010 I added some practical things to think about if you plan to come here next time and also made a brief comment on the names of the Catalan human towers.

In my post on the 2009 edition I explained why the plaça de la Vila of Vilafranca can rightly claim to be the number one human tower square of Catalonia (la plaça més castellera).

In my post on the 2008 edition you can at least see that I was there. ;)