Centre independent - English
THE INDEPENDENT CENTRE (later the National Centre)
The Independent Centre was a cultural, recreational, and political society founded in 1913 by people linked to Carlism, conservativism, and monarchist parties. The building and the courtyards of its headquarters were built on a plot donated by Ms Carme Segarra, who owned significant property in the area and was very committed to the Carlist cause. The Independent Centre was inaugurated in 1914. Previously, its members met at the Cafè del Cal Sans on Carrer Sant Jaume.
Very quickly, given that there was a mix of political tendencies and people from different social backgrounds among its members, in one of its meetings a member of the entity, upon seeing the differences and discrepancies, exclaimed: "This looks like a mixed bag!" This nickname stuck with it and was taken advantage of disparagingly by the members of the other local society, the Republican Union. The name stuck with it until a few years ago.
During the Second Republic, the City Council leased a part of its facilities to put four classrooms in the Public School for boys.
As a result of the military uprising of 18 July 1936, the group's activity was closed and the premises were requisitioned by the City Council. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War, it continued as a school and centre for refugees, but from April 1938 until the end of the conflict it became a field hospital for the lightly wounded.
With Franco's victory, it was put back into operation as a recreational society under the name of the National Centre, now the only one in the town since the Republican Centre had been closed. In the early years of the dictatorship, to be a member you had to be affiliated with the Falange or the Youth Front. Over time, this obligation faded away, but the association continued to bring together and represent the sectors of the town most connected to the regime, especially on its boards of directors. This private entity organized all the local festivals and recreational activities, which could only be accessed by members. For many years it was an essential meeting point and recreational site for several generations.
At the end of the 1960s, the association began to open up hesitantly, with the entry onto the boards of directors of younger and more progressive people. However, it took a vast popular struggle with mass assemblies, a boycott of its events, and denunciations of the fraud found in the elections of the Board of Directors before the sectors of the democratic opposition could access it with the majority vote of the members in the early 1970s.
From 1979, the City Council, which emerged from the first democratic municipal elections, began to be responsible for the town’s festive, recreational, leisure, and cultural activities, organizing events for all the local inhabitants.
In the following years, the leading role of this association began to diminish as some of its members left because, with the annual financial contribution made by the City Council to the entity as compensation for the activities it organized, everyone could already use its facilities and its private status was lost.
The cost of maintaining the building and the facilities increased more and more, and its income did not cover the costs, resulting in a debt that was difficult to pay off. In 1992, the General Assembly of the Recreational Social Centre approved the transfer of the buildings and facilities to the City Council on the condition that it take charge of the financial hole that the entity had dug. Since it became municipal property, renovation and improvement works have been carried out, a street for pedestrians has been opened up, and a medical office and nursing home have been installed on site.
The Independent Centre was a cultural, recreational, and political society founded in 1913 by people linked to Carlism, conservativism, and monarchist parties. The building and the courtyards of its headquarters were built on a plot donated by Ms Carme Segarra, who owned significant property in the area and was very committed to the Carlist cause. The Independent Centre was inaugurated in 1914. Previously, its members met at the Cafè del Cal Sans on Carrer Sant Jaume.
Very quickly, given that there was a mix of political tendencies and people from different social backgrounds among its members, in one of its meetings a member of the entity, upon seeing the differences and discrepancies, exclaimed: "This looks like a mixed bag!" This nickname stuck with it and was taken advantage of disparagingly by the members of the other local society, the Republican Union. The name stuck with it until a few years ago.
During the Second Republic, the City Council leased a part of its facilities to put four classrooms in the Public School for boys.
As a result of the military uprising of 18 July 1936, the group's activity was closed and the premises were requisitioned by the City Council. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War, it continued as a school and centre for refugees, but from April 1938 until the end of the conflict it became a field hospital for the lightly wounded.
With Franco's victory, it was put back into operation as a recreational society under the name of the National Centre, now the only one in the town since the Republican Centre had been closed. In the early years of the dictatorship, to be a member you had to be affiliated with the Falange or the Youth Front. Over time, this obligation faded away, but the association continued to bring together and represent the sectors of the town most connected to the regime, especially on its boards of directors. This private entity organized all the local festivals and recreational activities, which could only be accessed by members. For many years it was an essential meeting point and recreational site for several generations.
At the end of the 1960s, the association began to open up hesitantly, with the entry onto the boards of directors of younger and more progressive people. However, it took a vast popular struggle with mass assemblies, a boycott of its events, and denunciations of the fraud found in the elections of the Board of Directors before the sectors of the democratic opposition could access it with the majority vote of the members in the early 1970s.
From 1979, the City Council, which emerged from the first democratic municipal elections, began to be responsible for the town’s festive, recreational, leisure, and cultural activities, organizing events for all the local inhabitants.
In the following years, the leading role of this association began to diminish as some of its members left because, with the annual financial contribution made by the City Council to the entity as compensation for the activities it organized, everyone could already use its facilities and its private status was lost.
The cost of maintaining the building and the facilities increased more and more, and its income did not cover the costs, resulting in a debt that was difficult to pay off. In 1992, the General Assembly of the Recreational Social Centre approved the transfer of the buildings and facilities to the City Council on the condition that it take charge of the financial hole that the entity had dug. Since it became municipal property, renovation and improvement works have been carried out, a street for pedestrians has been opened up, and a medical office and nursing home have been installed on site.