Pavelló de la República CRAI Library

CRAI Biblioteca Pavelló de la República
41°25′51″N 2°9′4″E
Location	Barcelona
Established	1996
Collection
Size	Over than 105,000 copies among books and pamphlets compose the library's collection. In the newspapers archive there are 10,000 titles and the archive have over 537 lineal meters.
Access and use
Population served	The library is open to everybody
Other information
Website	Biblioteca Pavelló de la República

The Pavelló de la República Library in Barcelona, Spain is one of the world's leading archival libraries on subjects such as the Second Spanish Republic, the Spanish Civil War, exile from Spain during Francoist Spain and Spain's transition to democracy. In 1996, the University of Barcelona's Learning and Research Resources Centre (CRAI) joined the library. The library also has important materials on the Soviet Bloc and on the international political history of the twentieth history, particularly World War II. The building was originally designed and built for an exhibition in Paris in 1937, before being recreated in Barcelona in 1992.

The building in the Paris International Exhibition of 1937

The original location of the building in Paris in 1937.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the government of the Spanish Republic participated in the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la vie moderne, better known as the Paris International Exhibition of 1937. The outbreak of the war in 1936 had a clear impact on the Spanish exhibition, and drew significant international attention to it. The exhibition lasted from 25 May until 25 November 1937. The Pavilion was opened but not until July 12, and was located at Avenida del Trocadero near the pavilions of Germany and the Soviet Union.

Design

The project architect was the philosopher Jose Gaos, curator of the flag; the painter Josep Renau; and writer Max Aub, who organized the contents of the exhibition pavilion and commissioned the construction of the building to architects Josep Maria Sert and Luis Lacasa. Audiovisual production was by Luis Buñuel, appointed coordinator of the Propaganda the Information Service at the Embassy in Paris.

Architecture

Sert and Lacasa conceived the building of the Hall of the Republic as an empty container three stories tall. Due to limited time and building materials, many prefabricated panels were used in the creation of the building. The architects also had to adapt to building on an irregular terrain while preserving the trees already on the property. It had an area of 1,400 square meters.

Exhibits and collections

In the entrance of the building were posters, photographs, photomontages, proclamations, information panels, as well as art and craft sent directly from Spanish central and regional governments and various unions.

Many of the exhibits sought to educate how life was before and after the Spanish Republic. The first floor was devoted to information about the ongoing Spanish Civil War, while the second focused on the arts and popular sections.

One of the attractions of the Spanish pavilion was the debut of Pablo Picasso's Guernica, the now-famous depiction of the horrors of war. Picasso had been commissioned to created a mural for the Exhibition. The work garnered mixed reviews. Another attraction was Alexander Calder's sculpture Mercury Fountain. A large mural by Joan Miró entitled Catalan peasant in revolt was on the second floor; the mural was lost or destroyed a year later while being transferred to Valencia.

The building replicated in Barcelona in 1992

Main entrance

With the Olympic Games of 1992, the City Council commended the architects Antonio Ubach, Juan Miguel Hernandez, and Miguel Espinet Leon by gifting them a replica of the Pavilion of the Republic that had been presented at the Paris Exhibition.

Today the building is occupied by CRAI Library Hall of the Republic, which has one of the most important collections in the world on Second Republic Civil War, Francoism, Transition and exile in Spain, especially in Catalonia and the International Centre for Historical Studies, founded by Jaume Vicens Vives.

A reproduction of Picasso's famous Guernica can be seen in its original location, on a wall of the open courtyard of the pavilion.

External links

• Official website