The Kings celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Montserrat and the 50th anniversary of Badia del Vallés

From a thousand-year-old Catalonia to the Catalonia of the years of emigration. The King and Queen will take a tour next Monday, beginning at the Abbey of Montserrat and ending in Badia del Vallés, a territory that spans a thousand years of history in just six hours. Together with the Moreneta, they will share in the celebrations of the Millenary and, in Vallés, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the social housing estate that, thanks to local residents' demands, became a municipality.

The day will begin at 12 noon when the King and Queen arrive at the monastery esplanade. There, accompanied by the President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), they will be received by Abbot Manel Gasch. A ceremony will then take place inside the basilica, as part of the celebrations for the 1,000th anniversary of the monastery, founded in 1025 by Abbot Oliva. The King and Queen, as they did on July 14, 2011, when they visited Montserrat as Prince of Asturias, will pay homage to the image of the Black Madonna.

The pro-independence Catalan National Assembly (ANC) has called for a march on social media that will depart at 6 a.m. from Collbató, at the foot of Montserrat Mountain, to climb the monastery and protest the visit of the Kings.

In the afternoon, after their visit to the symbol of Catalan identity and spirituality, the King and Queen will travel back in time and space to celebrate, together with local residents and authorities, the 50th anniversary of the handing over of keys to the first inhabitants of the then-known Ciudad Badía industrial estate, a group of social housing blocks occupied mainly by immigrants who arrived in Catalonia in the 1960s and 1970s. Over time, Ciudad (later Ciutat) Badia, which occupied part of the municipal districts of Cerdanyola and Barberá del Vallés, achieved segregation, becoming the municipality of Badia del Vallés in 1994.

The King and Queen will begin their visit at the town hall, where, again accompanied by President Illa, they will be received by the Mayor of Badía del Vallés, Josep Martínez Valencia (PSC). After signing the guest book, Felipe and Letizia will walk to the Civic Center, where they will meet with some of the residents who arrived in 1975 and still live in the neighborhood, as well as with other younger residents. The motto for Badía's 50th anniversary is "Ahir, avui y demà," a way of uniting a past of residents, mostly from other parts of Spain who came to Catalonia and were also protagonists of neighborhood struggles to obtain services in the industrial estate, with the present of the municipality and the future represented by the new generations.

They will also visit the Espai Jove, a center for initiatives, including occupational workshops for young people, many of them from foreign migrant groups.

The tour through the streets of Badía will end at the Participatory Mural, a wall in a park that residents have been painting in patches since the Festa Major celebrations a few days ago. It reflects the arrival of the first residents of the industrial estate 50 years ago. It was on July 14, 1975, when the first keys were handed over at a ceremony attended by the then-Princesses Juan Carlos and Sofía.

Located about 20 kilometers from Barcelona, ​​in the Vallès Occidental region, Badia is a private municipality made up of nearly 200 social housing blocks built during the Franco regime, home to just over 13,000 inhabitants.