The Generalitat de Catalunya, through a concerted effort between the Departament de Cultura and the Agència Catalana del Patrimoni Cultural, has released a comprehensive new digital catalogue detailing industrial tourism routes across the region. This initiative reaffirms Catalonia’s commitment to preserving and promoting its rich manufacturing and technical history, transforming former industrial sites into significant cultural and educational destinations.
This detailed guide is far more than a simple travel guide; it offers comprehensive itineraries designed to allow both local residents and international visitors to explore the sites, factories, historical workshops, and engineering feats that have defined the Catalan landscape. The routes provide a valuable window into the past, covering everything from the historic textile colonies to significant mining and water infrastructure projects.
The development and quality of these itineraries benefited significantly from local expertise and institutional collaboration. Specifically, the project incorporated knowledge from the Xarxa de Turisme Industrial de Catalunya (XATIC), which serves as a key local partner in the EU-funded project, SMITour (Smart Monitoring of Industrial Tourism Experiences). XATIC’s participation ensures the catalogue’s routes are aligned with European best practices for sustainable industrial heritage tourism, providing visitors with authentic, detailed experiences that integrate historical context with modern-day relevance and monitoring frameworks established by the SMITour project.
To ensure maximum accessibility for a global audience, the catalogue has been made available for free digital download and has been translated into a good selection of languages. Interested travellers, historians, and researchers are encouraged to access this valuable resource directly from the official government portal.
Don’t miss! Download the full catalogue of industrial tourism routes here: https://empresa.gencat.cat/ca/departament/serveis/publicacions/turisme/coleccio-rutes-artistiques/index.html
