This is a story of perseverance, historical reparation and patience, a lot of patience. In a distant 2016, Hugo Rovira de Saralegui and his mother Carmen requested a modification to the presentation of the Barcelona gazetteer, the commission that studies the name proposals for public roads in the city. They are the descendants of the Foixart family, a lineage that exploited the Foixarda de Montjuïc quarry from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century.
Their request was that the current street and road signs of the Foixarda mountain make express reference to the Foixarts and that the origin of the Foixarda toponym be corrected in the dictionary and on the gazetteer's website. In the municipal information, when this name was approved in the 90s, it was attributed to a plant, specifically “the foixarda subshrub” (in Spanish known as coronilla de fraile or coronilla real), instead, as the heirs prove, to explain that this term was formed by the derivation of the name of the Foixart family.
During the mandate of Mayor Ada Colau and despite cordial words that her case is being studied, the request was not successful. After complaining about the matter again with the change of the municipal government, the good news occurred just before Easter, when the gazetteer's presentation gave the green light to make the modification after preparing a historical report that confirmed the request of the descendants of the Foixart. Specifically, Pedreres dels Foixart i els Rovira (17th century-1915) will be added to the texts on the plaques on Foixarda Street and Foixarda Road, in addition to correcting the historical and etymological information about Foixarda in the dictionary of the gazetteer
Apart from the eight long years of waiting, Hugo had previously devoted more time to researching his family roots. He has gone to different archives, libraries and newspaper libraries. One of the most relevant sources was found in the doctoral thesis Mestres d'obres i fuste: la construction in Barcelona in the 18th century (edited by the Furniture Makers College, 1991), by the Barcelona historian and archivist Manuel Arranz. In a query raised in La Vanguardia by the Defensor del Lector in 2011, the journalist Lluís Permanyer already pointed out in agreement with Arranz's thesis that the relevant derivation of the Foixarts produced the number of Foixarda.
The family decided to make the petition in 2016 for the centenary of the transfer and sale in 1915 to Barcelona City Council of the land belonging to the heirs of the Foixart family to allocate them to municipal parks, on the occasion of the Electrical Industries Exhibition in Barcelona. initially planned for 1917 and which would end up being unleashed in the 1929 International Exhibition, as reported by La Vanguardia in its edition of November 20, 1915. The old quarry was located where today is the municipal rugby field, the historic botanical garden , horse riding or tennis courts.
Despite the delay, Hugo and the family ultimately show their “satisfaction” because in this way the “family and collective” memory is restored and the right of citizens to “truthful information” is remedied. They also appreciate the “disposition and diligence” of the socialist Raquel Gil, councilor of the Sants-Montjuïc and Democratic Memory district and president of the gazetteer's presentation.
The family has already been informed that they will install the new plaques “as soon as possible” and the information about Foixarda in the gazetteer's virtual dictionary will be amended after three decades.
