Sagrada Familia

The Modernism was the artistic movement that came with the economic boom in almost all the Spanish cities at the end of the XIX Century, and that in all regions such as Catalonia acquired its own peculiarities. In this context, we should talk about Barcelona as a city in expansion thanks to the demolition of the old wall that surrounded the city in 1854. We should not forget the role of the new social class, the bourgeoisie, who took advantage of the Modernism in all its aspects in order to create its own image, so it favoured the appearance of new artistic activities.In 1900, Spain had 19 millions of inhabitants, and 12 millions were illiterates.

Since 1800, the critics against the government of the Restoration increased among small groups of intellectuals. During this period, the critics to the turnismo (system of turn of parties), the social imbalance and the ineffectiveness and corruption of power are abundant. The Modernism is also known as the generation of 98. A generation that many intellectual identified with decline, pessimism, and regenerationist wishes.

The movement is a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and the advances derived from it. The Modernism develops new concepts based on the nature, looking for an identity of what is urban and modern. During the last third of the XIX Century, the resurgence of the political Catalanism took place. It was articulated to the claiming of the sovereignty lost in the XVIII Century. In 1932, Catalonia got the Statute of Autonomy and the founding of the Republican Generalitat. During the XIX Century and until the end of the Civil War, the Catalonian literature left its age- old delay and started a long way of recovering.