Municipal museum receives donation of graphic documents

The collection includes an image of the rescue post in Cala del Tangó.

AYTO Museum Donation 01

Wednesday 23rd August 2023
Mike Smith

The Soler Blasco Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum has received a a donation of a set of documents and objects from the Guardiola Gilabert family, the Huguet family and Magdalena Marí.

Magdalena Marí has donated various objects of traditional xabiera culture, some of which are already part of the permanent exhibition whilst the Huguet family has donated several pieces to the museum’s ethnological collection.

But without a doubt, the donation made by the Guardiola-Gilabert family is the largest collection of written and graphic documentation from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

According to the first study carried out by the museum, among these documents is the expropriation of the lands of the Sant Jordi castle for the construction of the primitive Xàbia dock dating from 1871 and 200 photographic copies also from the late 19th century and early 19th century, among which is an image of the rescue post for shipwrecked people that was in Cala del Tango in 1900 and of which the masonry base can still be seen.

Other elements of the donation are documents that belonged to María Rosa Guardiola, head of the women’s section during the postwar period in Xàbia, and another series of files that account for sales operations, wills and diaries of those years.

But there are also ethnographic materials such as a large cauldron and a set of traditional volume measurements for grain as well as traditional clothing from the 19th and 20th centuries from the Guardiola-Gilabert family together with some pieces by Carmen Sales.

The museum staff will catalog all the pieces and they will become part of the ethnological and historical collections of the Soler Blasco de Xàbia Museum.