Art and culture define the renovated Torre Vella and Salou

Salou. Costa Dorada. 01 August 2025. After the rehabilitation works, the reopening of the Torre Vella could not be more brilliant or could better define the new Salou that is promoted, where art and culture are tools for transformation and projection. A Salou that has, in the words of Mayor Pere Granados, "the most important historical heritage of Catalonia and the Mediterranean peninsula, and that excites me", he confessed.

The Torre Vella is a 16th century defence tower that allowed to fight against the plague of piracy that ravaged Salou and this part of the coast, especially between the 15th and 16th centuries, although the first documented pirate attack dates from 1354.

In the 1970s, the reconstruction of the Torre Vella began, which the City Council decided to allocate to cultural facilities. For Granados, this has been one of "the most successful decisions of the City of Salou", because it has allowed to bet decisively on culture in the municipality.

The mayor recalled that the rehabilitation works carried out have allowed two more exhibition rooms to be opened to meet the great demand that the City Council has. In addition, an elevator has been installed that has made the entire space more accessible.

In his speech, Granados also highlighted the exhibition on Modest Cuixart that can be visited in the Torre Vella and that has served to reopen the exhibition space. The mayor of Salou recalled that it is the third exhibition of Cuixart in Salou, and that this is "the best tribute of Salou to the artist on the centenary of his birth."

Granados, in addition, recalled that "we have done a lot of work as a Capital of Catalan Culture, but we must continue to show that for Salou culture and heritage is very important" and, in turn, "also for Catalonia and Spain."

In this line, he announced that in autumn a work will be presented that is being prepared by the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) to publicize the heritage wealth of Salou, which dates back to the Neolithic, since remains of settlements from this time have been found when the works of the new recently opened train station were made.

In short, culture and art are tools for transformation in Salou, as the mayor has reiterated, who has remarked that the "Torre Vella is art and culture, which is what is also the town of Salou."


Torre Vella, a lighthouse for culture

The act of reopening the Torre Vella has filled the square with access to the buildings to listen to the historian Pedro Otiña, who has made a quick review of the history of the Torre Vella and the reason for its construction.

Raquel Medina, curator of the exhibition “Cuixart, alchemy and poetics of matter”, also spoke, saying that the exhibition includes works made by the artist throughout his life, where you can appreciate his evolution and his constant search for new forms of artistic expression.

In turn, the Councilor for Culture, Julia Gómez, has remarked that "the Torre Vella is projected as a lighthouse of culture" for Salou, and stressed that the Esmalt Museum that hosts is one of the only 3 that exist in Europe, so that the role of the facility as a cultural center of the first order is reinforced.

Finally, the director of the Regional Culture Services of the Generalitat in Tarragona, Ricard Ibarra, congratulated the municipality of Salou, because "it honors the capital of Catalan Culture" that it holds this year, and because "it makes a lot of efforts to promote its cultural heritage". In this sense he praised the Torre Vella because “it is a very lively space and a first-rate cultural center, and this is not done alone”, he said, since “working heritage means investing in rehabilitation and recovery”. In this sense, he has expressed that the “Generalitat has helped and will continue to do so, giving all the support that suits the City Council”, and congratulated the municipality for the work done.

The discovery of a commemorative plaque, the visit to the Esmalt Museum and the Cuixart exhibition, and a cello concert by the musician Jorge Sierra, in tribute to Pau Casals, have put an end to the act and have opened the new stage of the cultural center of the Torre Vella in Salou.

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