The 19th century, the century of the Industrial Revolution, was the period of great social, political, technological and philosophical changes. It could be said that the century begins with the defeat and confinement of Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena in 1815. The future of Spain was very divergent from that of Europe, Spain was left behind seeing how the majority of its American colonies became independent in the first third century, that Bourbon absolutism bankrupted the country and only in certain peripheral parts, industrialization was able to change the panorama, and almost always, outside the government in power.
As a brief touch, let us remember that in this period the steam locomotive was invented (1804), Beethoven wrote his third symphony (1804-06), the first photograph appeared (1826), the first anesthesia (1846), Marx wrote his communist manifesto. (1848), the telephone appears (1854), pasteurization (1864), Nobel invents dynamite (1866), the gramophone appears (1888), the first airplane (1890), the radio and the cinema (1894) and aspirin (1899).
After the unfortunate journey of the Spanish crown and its sale to Napoleon by Charles IV, his son, Ferdinand VII (the desired one), returned to Spanish territory, 1814. His coreligionists were waiting for him in La Jonquera, it could have been an epic moment, but the glamor faded when the monarch threw himself on a quarter of roasted chicken and devoured it with relish. It was at that moment when one of our protagonists, Manuel Gibert Sans (1795-1873), appears in this story. Gibert was on guard at La Jonquera. Gibert had already fought against the Napoleonic troops and had reached, at that time, the rank of lieutenant.
Spain suffered three Carlist wars during the century, the first 1833-40, the second 1846-49 and the third between 1872 and 76. All three with three different aspirants to the throne but of the same lineage, against the monarch’s decision to abolish the Salic law so that his daughter (Elizabeth II) would become queen. (The first war begins with Carlos María Isidro de Borbón, brother of Fernando VII as a candidate for the throne).
Manuel Gibert studied law. His father was a lawyer and his grandfather a notary. Vicente Gibert, notary, was the author of the book originally written in Latin, Theoretical art of Notaries or manual of notaries, published in Barcelona in 1828.
Manuel Gibert studied in Cervera, the only active university in Catalonia since Philip V closed the Catalan universities by the Nueva Planta decree in 1717. The university of Barcelona reopened in 1842.
It is curious to note that Gibert did not abandon his military career to study law and that during his active life, he combined his military activities with politics, business promotion and cultural patronage.
After acts of vandalism such as the burning of convents in Barcelona, ??which occurred after the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, Gibert was appointed commander of the 14th militia battalion.
The religious orders supported the Carlists. She began MªCristina’s regency for the minority of her daughter Isabel II. The tumultuous movements were known as the bullangas. From these events, Gibert consolidated himself as a strong man of the Moderate Party in Catalonia.
Gibert was a main promoter in the demolition of the walls of Barcelona, ??especially in the Portal de l’Angel, where he also bought, in 1835, a large amount of land outside the walls, specifically in the current Plaza de Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia. It was precisely in the center of the current square where a large mansion was built, commissioned by the architect Oriol Mestres (father of the writer, poet and illustrator, Apel.les Mestres). It was also at that time when he developed his project for the Dramatic Philharmonic Lyceum Society, initially on the grounds of the Montsió convent and shortly after, in collaboration with his friend Joaquim de Gispert, they moved it to the grounds of the current Liceo theater, of the that Gibert was its first president. He gave a large amount of money for its construction, which was exchanged for a box and 24 seats in the great Liceo theater.
His immense fortune was consolidated with the purchase of agricultural land in what would later become Eixample, in shares in the railway from Barcelona to Mataró and in many other businesses.
When the railway from Barcelona to Mataró is mentioned, the name of Miquel Biada, who was its main promoter, always comes up. Fair recognition is given to this entrepreneur, that he was not able to see his work completed, dying a few months before the inauguration of the train, in 1848.
Spain was immersed in the Second Carlist War, the environment was hostile, with considerable insecurity for the works and normal development of the railway line.
In 1847 Gibert had been appointed Civil Governor of Barcelona. Given this consolidation of power, the members of the board of the railway company from Barcelona to Mataró asked him to preside over the company and he accepted.
In addition to the disorders and damage to railroad property, Gibert had another challenge, extending the train to the coastal towns and giving business sense to the project. To this end, the first thing he did was a fairly forceful BANDO, in which he specified fines of 100 reais for crossing the tracks in an unauthorized place, that the company’s security guards were equated to the police, pecuniary penalties of high for obstructing and damaging the road, payment of the costs of the damage and corporal punishment, if the situation required it. He then proceeded to negotiate with the fishermen of Mataró to leave the tracks as far away from the beach as possible and continue towards Llavaneres. Although this railway could not have the glory of being the first Spanish railway, since Cuba, then Spanish, had it a few years before, it was the pioneer on the peninsula.
Another company had started the railway line from Barcelona to Granollers and it seemed logical that the expansion of both would be towards Girona and from there to the French border. Gibert’s work to negotiate and end up merging with the other company was key. At each stage, the company changed its name, incorporating that of the population it served. For this project, Gibert had the invaluable collaboration of the engineer Joaquim Carrera Sayrol, who drilled the second tunnel in Spain, between Caldes d’Estrac and Arenys de Mar. The coastal and interior lines coincided in Maçanet, at the point known as the Empalme, and from there they continued together towards Girona.
From Arenys to Empalme, 37.3 km, the work was carried out in two sections, the first, 27.9 km from Arenys to Tordera, was inaugurated in December 1859. The work was pharaonic, with 2,000 workers daily and having to drill the Sant Pol, La Cabra and la Torreta tunnels in Calella. It was completed in 20 months, however, the second section of 9.7 km took a long time, finishing in 1862.
From there to Girona, the two companies merged under the name of Caminos de Hierro de Barcelona a Gerona. The result was a coastal line between Barcelona and Empalme of 75 km and an interior line, from Barcelona to Empalme, of 70 km and from Empalme to Girona, a common line of 30 km.
In July 1863, the company obtained the concession from Girona to Figueres, of 41.2 km. The concession from Figueres to the border, of 27.1 km, was obtained in 1864.
In 1868, Manuel Gibert signed his last report on the company. That same year he was elected as a deputy in the Cortes.
During the railway works, Manuel Gibert thought that Caldes d’Estrac was a good place to buy land and build a house, so he acquired land on Callao Street and built there. He built several semi-detached houses that he gave to his daughter Elvira. They were the first holiday homes in Caldes d’Estrac.
The Revolution of 1868, known as La Gloriosa, marked the dethronement of Isabel II, who was expelled from the country with her mother, settling in Paris. The period known as the Democratic Sexennium began, from 1868 to 1874. Generals Prim, Topete, Serrano, Caballero, Dulce and the Duke of the Tower took up arms. For members of the Moderate Party, like Gibert, difficult times were beginning. Gibert had identified greatly with Isabel II, she even presided over the ceremony of laying the first stone in her mansion in the center of the current Plaza Catalunya. Gibert rejected a noble title proposed by Elizabeth II.
Prim opted for the Italian prince Amadeo of Savoy as king of Spain, but Prim was assassinated before the new monarch arrived in Madrid and after a sad and short reign, he presented his resignation. The first Republic was then proclaimed, which did not work, ending the six-year period with the Bourbon Restoration in the figure of Alfonso XII, son of Queen Isabel.
Manuel Gibert Sans, had married in 1821 with Mª Ángeles de Olivas de Pomareda, daughter of the military doctor Miguel de Olivas. One of his daughters, Dolors Gibert Olivas, married the stockbroker Frederic Maristany Serra, and from this marriage Eduard Maristany Gibert (1855-1941) was born. He was a civil engineer, he participated in the railway company that his grandfather Manuel Gibert had presided over. and later, he worked on the MZA railway line (Madrid, Zaragoza, Alicante), where he became president, as well as of S.A. Cros. It was he who designed and built the Argentera tunnel, province of Tarragona, near Falset , 4 km long, being awarded by Alfonso XIII with the noble title of Marquis of Argentera.
Another daughter of Manuel Gibert and Mª Ángeles de Olivas, Elvira (1829-1910), married the mechanical engineer Salvador Pi Fábregas, originally from the Born neighborhood, Barcelona, ??an interesting character, bohemian, great traveler and sworn translator of nine languages. Their children were educated in several languages, the main one being French.
The couple (Salvador Pi and Elvira Gibert) enjoyed a summer house in Caldes d’Estrac, given by Elvira’s father, as well as a mansion in Badalona known as Can Pi Gibert or Quinta Elvira. In this mansion, with medieval reminiscences in the form of battlements, was where the first-born, August Pi Gibert (1860-1923), was born. Her mother Elvira went into labor in Caldes d’Estrac while she was on vacation and went by horse-drawn carriage to Barcelona to give birth, but with her birth imminent they stayed at the house in Badalona and there she gave birth.
August Pi Gibert was a doctor, a disciple of Ramón y Cajal, with recognized professional prestige. He used part of his assets to invest in many businesses, including the Font Picant de Amer (Girona), whose water was considered medicinal. Another son of this marriage between Salvador Pi Fábregas and Elvira Gibert de Olivas was Lluís Pi Gibert, a figurative painter, who lived in this mansion in Badalona and in Sitges.
The property was sold during the Franco era to the Montalfita textile company, owned by the Montal family, with many links to Arenys de Mar. A textile factory was installed there and the mansion was demolished. In the 70s of the last century, a residential complex known as Elvira Park was built on these lands, which had been just off the highway.
Elvira Gibert de Olivas dedicated, in her maturity, a lot of time and money to charitable works, she thought about building a church, so she requested ecclesiastical authorization to build it in Caldes d’Estrac. Not only did she obtain it but she was also decorated by the Pope. This is the church-chapel of Carmen, next to the station, with a large dome of ceramic tiles and a considerable volume. The work was designed by the architect Laureà Arroyo and was initially intended to serve the train workers spiritually, but in the long run it became the church of the Caldetes holiday colony. The church was inaugurated in 1903 and as an anecdotal fact, the angels on the wall paintings have the faces of the Pi Gibert family. It can be said that Elvira Gibert de Olivas was the first vacationer, a character from Barcelona’s high society, who made this town fashionable, and shortly after, the Passeig dels Anglesos and the Marquis of Casa Riera were developed, their continuation in Sant Vicenç de Montalt (then Sant Vicenç de Llavaneres). Her father, Manuel Gibert, contributed to the development of the region with the expansion of the train and she, Elvira, made Caldetes fashionable.
Elvira rests in the crypt of the chapel that she had built.
