The activities, which include storytelling, a book presentation, and concerts, will begin on Friday, April 19, and will continue until Aragon Day, when the streets of the old town center will come alive again.
For the second year in a row, the program of events for the "Sant Jordi al Poble Vell" celebration, which coincides with Aragon Day and World Book Day, is expanding with more activities. This day of community, remembrance, and reconnection with the past will take place on Tuesday, April 23rd, in the streets of the town's old town center, which disappeared due to the construction of the Riba-roja Reservoir. The street layout of the old town center remains. This year's program includes a family-friendly activity promoting reading, a book presentation, and a concert in the Sala Goya featuring the Jota dance.
The activities will begin on Friday the 19th at 6 pm in the Plaza del Minero, in front of the Casa de la Cultura building which houses, among other services, the Municipal Public Library, with the visit of the Belentuela Caravan, in which the storyteller will offer a storytelling session dedicated to female composers and in which some of the secrets they kept will be revealed in addition to giving them visibility.
On Saturday, April 20th, at 12:30 pm in the Moncada space of the Mequinenza Museums, the book “Un país estranger” (A Foreign Country) by Miquel Berga, Honorary Professor of English Literature at Pompeu Fabra University, will be presented. The book is a network of interwoven stories of flooded villages and lives shaken by war, focusing on a family of Mequinenza emigrants. In addition to the author, historian Fernando Casal, Professor of History at the Joan Boscà Institute in Barcelona, will also participate in the presentation. Later that afternoon, at 7 pm in the Goya Room, Nacho del Río and Beatriz Bernal, along with the Rondalla Aragonesa directed by Javier Badules, will present the show “Coplas y cantares con J” (Songs and Verses with J). Admission is free until capacity is reached.
The celebration of “Sant Jordi al Poble Vell” will take place on Tuesday, April 23rd. From 10:00 AM, a free tourist train will connect Poble Nou and Poble Vell, facilitating transportation for those wishing to participate in the planned activities, which will begin with an open-air mass sung by the Mequinenza Choir next to the ruins of the old Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. At midday, in the Moncada Space of the History Museum, the Mequinenza Municipal Music Orchestra will offer a concert and at one o'clock the traditional vermouth will take place in the Plaça d'Armes with a wide variety of tapas and sweets prepared by the entities and associations that actively collaborate in the celebration: the town such as the Mequinenza Women's Association “La Dona”, the San Blas and Santa Águeda commissions, the Association of Pensioners and Retirees, the Reading Group, the Mequinenza Choir, the Rondalla del Poble, the Santa Agatoclia Brotherhood and the Virgen del Pilar Brotherhood.
On Tuesday morning, activities for children are planned in the Plaza de los Museos, including an inflatable park and a series of activities coordinated by the Spai Jove youth center staff. The Mequinenza Museums will remain open and can be visited free of charge. Specifically, visits to the Mining Museum will be guided in small groups of up to 25 people each, with three tours scheduled for 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00. These guided tours are also free, but tickets must be collected on the day of the tour from the Museums' reception desk.
