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Calonge de Segarra, in the Anoia region, has completed the restoration and museumization of the Vicenta Mine, which we visited in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia.
According to the Anoia tourist office, this mine received the name Mina Vicenta from 1926. It was exploited by the Mining Union and is documented as early as the second half of the 19th century. Several photographs from the beginning of the 20th century (1903, 1910 and 1913) are preserved.
In the mine the visitor can “relive and learn about the harshness and working conditions that were experienced in this type of mining operations and how lignite was extracted from the bottom of the underground galleries.”
The Calonge de Segarra City Council, with the collaboration of the Barcelona Provincial Council, has recovered the original structures of the mine. The action has consisted of the consolidation and restoration of the mine entrance; the sanitation of the interior of the gallery, and the repointing of the brick vault.
The stone walls on the outside that framed the track along which the minecarts circulated, “which, without rest, entered the mine empty and came out full of coal, pulled by a mule, have also been rebuilt.” Once the mine structures were recovered, an explanatory panel has been placed and the space has been museumized.
Pau leaves the house, his mother and sister are also gone. The sister gives her the basket, which weighed more than her, in which she has breakfast and lunch boxes and a bottle of water. The men who work with him wear a boot of wine. But the mother does not give it to him because she says that he is too young. She doesn’t know that her classmates let her have a drink.
It’s cold today, this damn fog. Once everything is ready, he takes the sumera, which he has already attached to the cart, and goes to work. He knows that, when he leaves, the mother and sister, if they don’t cry a little or not. Father left for work one morning and never came back.
But if I’m the one who transports the coal, the men made and remade, they are the ones who put themselves in those galleries, which there are that have to snake to get in. And they are breathing that atmosphere all the time. All their bones hurt and most of them also smoke.
They already see reaching Peace, it’s automatic. They all start playing pranks on him, they all want him as their son. The foreman says it’s time to start, all the faces change, they take their tools and head inside. Most of them must be praying; yes, after a while, they get animated again.
The foreman comes out, all upset, there’s been an accident, they need help. All who were outside run inside; Pau, too.
Suddenly, an explosion… Silence… A person crawls out of the smoke… And at the entrance to the mine he is unconscious. It turns out that when the rescue group enters, they realize that Peace is there. They send him out in a bad way. This saved his life!
The people who were still outside the mine ran to help. In this, a cart from ca l’Alzina appears, with the village doctor. They were visiting the heir of Ca l’Alzina again. And on the way they heard an unusual noise. They didn’t hesitate.
Mr. Doctor jumps from a tree and goes towards the tumult, seeing him everyone moves away, gives him space. There is a silence, everyone’s eyes are on him. The doctor notices. He sees an unconscious young boy, examines him and when he’s done, asks: “who is this boy?”.
They answer the son of the Angel.” Which Angel?” – replies the Doctor. Yes, Xavier, he died in this mine a year ago.
“Aaaa, the one you called Ángel because he was a very good person, the one who helped the people of Cal Rullat when their house caught fire, he looked for the carpenters and bricklayers from the mine and after the day they went to rebuild the house, he’s also the one who, when the Quadres were left with a widow and three children, moved heaven and earth to find them monetary help, right?”
“And what made the boy from cal Sostres, he needed to take him to the Hospital in Barcelona and they didn’t have money for the cost of the operation and residence, he went to see the owners of the mine and managed to the peasant mine operation and recovery”.
“Yes, doctor, yes” – li van answer.
“Oysters this kid is not old enough to work in the mine, but he turned a blind eye so he could feed his family. Now I understand what’s going on.”
The Doctor turns to the entire crowd behind him. With a silence that would have heard the flight of a fly, if it had been summer. They must be praying, he thought.
To the person next to him, he asked, “What’s your name?”
The doctor raises his hands, as a warning, and says: “Pau will be fine.”
The silence ended, a burst of joy invaded that place. The doctor clapped his hands and said, “She needs to be taken home. Tell mother I’ll be back later, when I’m done with her mates.”
When the carriage from Ca l’Alzina arrived at Pau’s house, all the neighbors and more women were already there. The mother, having the cart in front of the door, couldn’t take it anymore, between tears, she ran to her son. A man grabs him in a tree and takes him to bed. All the doors were open and a woman showed him where to go…
It took Pau six months to find himself well. But his family lacked nothing. The door of his house was never closed, when he wasn’t visiting he was with a neighbor with a pot of soup, Mr. Doctor, he just said “God save you” and did and undid as he saw fit.
The Lord Doctor took a liking to him, and began to spread the word that he was already old, that he would not last forever, that it would be good to find a replacement for him. When he already had everyone convinced, he went and dropped a name, what do you think if we send El Pau to study medicine in Barcelona.
Don’t ask me how, but the region we used to call Altasegarra today paid for Pau’s medical degree. Four years in Barcelona and when Doctor Pau returned, he acted as assistant to the official Doctor.
Mr. Pau, the doctor, passed at full speed through the streets or paths, everyone greeted him. When the doctor left them, Pau was already riding a horse. He turned out to be a very good doctor and it was the time, if you were to knock on his door, it was the time, in one breath, you had him at the door ready. Actually, it wasn’t his door, it was his sister’s house, because it turned out he was an exceptional doctor but a disaster at taking care of himself.
His sister, husband and three nephews took him in and he began to be well dressed, ironed and fed, until the end of his days. The day he left us, everyone in Altasegarra was paralyzed, there was no shop, business or workshop open. They were all there to say their last goodbyes, they didn’t fit in the parish church.
