Centre AQUA

AQUA, A NEW CONCEPT OF MUSEUM

Espai Aqua is a modern museum, an interpretative centre about mineral water. This is the element which best characterizes Sant Hilari, known as “La Vila de les Vent Fonts” ( the town of the hundred springs) and that’s why Museu Guilleries considered it was necessary to create a space dedicated to explaining its uniqueness, its economic importance, its memory but also its fragility.

With Espai Aqua, Museu Guilleries makes a leap forward in its social function and its own role as an engine of local development, becoming a true water innovation centre.

AQUA, A PLACE TO LOVE WATER AND TO DISCOVER LES GUILLERIES

Amazing spaces, mirrors, audiovisuals, interactive elements and set designs combined all together to offer an intense and pleasant experience and knowledge. It also tries to awake people’s love for the forest and the springs in Les Guilleries, in the hope that this admiration will be translated into a better preservation and use of such scarce resource.

SPACES

The first space is devoted to explain why Les Guilleries is the birthplace of more than hundred springs and why its water is unique thanks to the subsoil through which it filters, the time it takes to do so and the temperature at which it is kept.

The second space addresses the importance water has had in Sant Hilari’s economy from the 19^th century to the present. Therefore, it begins talking about the complex and rigorous process needed to carry the water from the aquifer to the container and to the table of the final consumer. After that, in another exhibition space organised in two sets and a projection, you can find out about the past and the present of the spa activity in Sant Hilari.

The third space tries to raise awareness among the visitors. Through a projection of images and phrases, it is intended to send a message of the responsible use of water.

The fourth space is an audiovisual room in which the video Looking for the source of life is shown. It is about how, from the ancient times, people have made up myths and legends about the mountains which hide miraculous springs. In Sant Hilari Sacalm, there are plenty of figures who have come here looking for the cure in its springs or the calm and a refuge in its forests: figures such as Serrallonga, Kubala, Verdaguer, Azaña or Macià. Nowadays, Les Guilleries, like other lost literature paradises, offers us the possibility of rediscovering our original bond with nature and water, source of life.

The fifth space is for the little ones. It is a room equipped with discovery and ability games: an interactive memory about landscapes, a big puzzle of huge trees and a projection zone to draw Les Guilleries, with tables in order to colour them.

Espai  Aqua, apart from becoming a new exhibition space of Museu Guilleries, as an innovation centre itself, also has an area for temporary exhibitions, a tourist information desk, training rooms, a co-working area for young entrepreneurs, offices for different businesses and a big room which holds all types of activities and celebrations.