Tomàs Culí i Verdaguer

Tomàs Culí i Verdaguer was a landowner, businessman, and politician born in 1877 in Santa Coloma de Farners. He was the heir of the rural property owner Benet Culí i Verneda from Sant Hilari Sacalm, who married Mercè Verdaguer i Grau from Santa Coloma de Farners in 1876. Mercè was the daughter of the doctor of law Tomàs Verdaguer y Planella and Mercè Grau y Mercader. The mother’s family had a long tradition of jurisconsults.

Tomàs Culí had three brothers. We have little information about his older brother Anton. We know that he died in Sant Hilari in 1932, but before that, he was active in Catalan political publications during the 1920s in Barcelona and a member of political entities such as the board of the Casal Catalanista in Barcelona’s III district, affiliated with the Republican Nationalist Union.

There is no information available about his sister, Ramona. As for his younger brother Frederic, he was active in the cultural sphere in Sant Hilari, a town that attracted a large colony of vacationers from many regions. Together with Josep Ximeno Planas, Frederic promoted the newspaper L’Estiuada, which was published during the summer between 1908 and 1914.

Tomàs did not have higher education, but he did complete primary and secondary school in Girona. As the heir, he had to manage the family assets, which were mainly forest estates in the Guilleries.

In 1905, Tomàs Culí joined the Sant Hilari Sacalm City Council and was appointed first deputy mayor during the tenure of Mayor Manel Borrell i Pons. In January 1906, he was elected mayor by the councilors, receiving six votes from the council members who participated in the election. In L’Estiuada, vacationers praised the improvements made in Sant Hilari during his term as mayor from 1906 to 1911. His friendship with Joan Ventosa y Calvell—deputy for the district of the League and a vacationer in Sant Hilari—and his brother Frederic’s political connections in Barcelona facilitated his political career. He also had innovative ideas, although some were not implemented, such as the idea of creating a “tourist tax” to fund improvements for vacationers: a fee per vacationer paid by innkeepers and anyone who rented rooms.

He was re-elected as head of the consistory on July 1, 1909, with nine votes from the council members. He promoted urban improvements (sidewalks, benches, tree-lined promenades, fountains in the streets, etc.), especially purchasing a 1,000 m² plot of land from the Rovira family in the town center to build Plaza del Doctor Gravalosa, with volunteer labor from the local people. He converted the old poorhouse into the town hall and a school. He succeeded in installing a telephone connected to Santa Coloma de Farners. He also created the town’s first garbage collection system using a cart. He supported acquiring Catalan grammar books for schools and contributed to the publication of the volume Notes Històriques sobre Sant Hilari, written by historian and vacationer Francesc Carreras Candi in 1911.

In 1909, he co-founded the Hispano Hilarienca bus company, which linked the railway stations of Breda and Hostalric with Sant Hilari to transport vacationers to the town, and also connected Sils station with Santa Coloma de Farners.

In 1917, he was elected deputy for the League for the district of Santa Coloma de Farners with 3,790 votes. He served as deputy secretary, was part of the Interior Commission in 1920, and was a member of the provincial commission between 1921 and 1922.

In the 1930s, he donated land, along with another former mayor, Joan Serras, to create a mountain school colony for the Barcelona City Council, a place that was later used by the Youth Front (Frente de Juventudes) during the Spanish Civil War and is now a secondary school.

He remained single throughout his life. His family remembers him as a generous person with no financial difficulties, elegant in his dress, and attentive to the theatrical and cinematic life of Barcelona. He traveled by plane across Europe before the war.

When the Civil War broke out, he moved to Paris, where he lived throughout the conflict, specifically at the Hotel Mont-Thabor, run by Joan Garolera, a native of the town of Arbúcies. Garolera paid for his stay, convinced that Culí, heir to a notable fortune, would later compensate him, which he did. At the end of the conflict, his assets were confiscated, and the ancestral home in the center of town—identified with the Republican period due to his brother Frederic’s affiliation with Esquerra Republicana and his friendship with Manuel Azaña, who had vacationed in Sant Hilari and had been the headquarters of the local committee—was taken over by the FET y de las JONS. However, he later legally reclaimed it and eventually regained his property.

Aside from this, Tomàs Culí was subjected to political purges under the Franco regime for having left the country and not reintegrating into the Francoist zone during the conflict. The issue was resolved with a relatively large fine, which he managed to pay in annual installments until it was waived in the mid-1950s. After the war, he resided in Barcelona—like his brother Frederic, who returned from exile in France and Andorra. He lived in La Pedrera, a luxurious family pension, although he made some temporary stays in Sant Hilari. Finally, feeling ill, he wanted to return to Sant Hilari for his last months, where he passed away in April 1961.