The celebration brought some fifty attendees together at the Adoberia Bella and included the presentation of the Guild’s new banner and a documentary find that extends its antiquity back to 1618

On 13 June, the Gremi de Blanquers of Igualada held one of the main events of its patron saint’s festival in honour of Saint Anthony of Padua, the organisation’s patron. The day brought some fifty attendees together at the Adoberia Bella, in an event combining tradition, heritage and historical memory.

Before the traditional dance of the giant Tonet Blanquer and the fellowship breakfast, the Igualada historian Daniel Vilarrubies presented the Guild’s new banner, a faithful replica of the original, currently kept at the Igualada Leather Museum and considerably deteriorated by the passage of time. During his address, Vilarrubies highlighted the symbolic role of guild banners in the Middle Ages, which represented the identity of the trade and presided over the main institutional events.

The event also served to make known an important documentary find. Vilarrubies handed over to the Guild the transcription of a notarial deed located in the Anoia County Archive, dated 19 April 1618, which attests to the separation of the guilds of tanners and shoemakers, until then united under the same ordinances and confraternity.

The document records the existence of 14 tanners and 24 shoemakers belonging to the guild at that time and makes it possible to push back the documented antiquity of the Gremi de Blanquers by 75 years, since the ordinances known until now date from 1693. The documentation also provides information about how the trade operated at that time, including the obligation of the tanners to hand over to the confraternity the fleshings and hair resulting from the working of hides, on pain of financial penalties.

During the address following the breakfast, the president of the Guild, Xavier Badia, announced that he will step down after nineteen years at the head of the organisation. In his speech, he thanked the guild members for their involvement, commitment and loyalty to an institution with a highly significant historical weight for the city of Igualada and for the leather sector.

Badia stressed that the continuity of the Guild over the centuries has been possible thanks to the sense of belonging and the dedication of many generations of professionals. He also expressed his conviction that Antoni Lancina Rabassa, who will take over the presidency at the next assembly, will carry on this legacy with the same involvement, responsibility and affection for the organisation.

The celebration demonstrated the vitality of a historic institution closely linked to the development of the Igualada tanning industry and to the heritage of the leather sector in Catalonia. More than four centuries after its first known documentary reference, the Gremi de Blanquers continues to represent the memory, the identity and the continuity of a trade that has contributed decisively to shaping the industrial character of the city.

The Gremi de Blanquers currently forms part of the ecosystem of Leather Cluster Barcelona, the association that represents the leather industry in Catalonia along its entire value chain, from tanneries to the processing and manufacturing sectors. This integration makes it possible to strengthen the competitiveness, innovation and international profile of a sector with a long tradition but fully oriented towards the challenges of the future.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.