Resumen de Cambio de percepción del patrimonio industrial y minero Catalán: la contribución del stmNACTEC

Andri Tsiouti, Kyra Romero Branchadell

• The long industrial tradition of Catalonia leaves a rich cultural heritageaccumulated over its territory. This heritage was in risk to fall into obliviondue to the delocalization and the technological transformation.The Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) is set upin 1994 to detain this process. It is a system of museums and interpretationcenters in which industrial elements -movable or immovable, tangible orintangible- are integrated, intended to compose a complete image of thefirst industrial processes. Factories, machines, mills, old mines, workerhousing, cartography and archives stand out among others.This article focuses on the perception of the Catalan industrial cultural heritage that forms part of the network of the mNACTEC by analyzing twostudy cases: on the one hand the Museum of Science and Technology ofCatalonia in Terrassa, an old textile factory distinguishing for its modernistic architecture and on the other hand the Cultural Park of the Salt Mountain of Cardona, where the old salt mine and the whole complex have beenrecuperated and opened to the public. Both cultural equipments attract animportant number of visitors. Firstly, it is exposed their history, previous totheir transformation, through photographs, plans and narratives that recompose their original image and collective memory. Secondly it is examined their current situation subsequent to their cultural recuperationthrough a comparative analysis focused on the change of perception.The intention is to demonstrate how the different cultural interventionspromoted by these centers make the industrial memory of the Catalan territory known and valued.