“Refugiats” opens in La Seu tracing cross‑border refugee stories

“Refugiats” has opened the upper floor of La Seu’s Civic Centre as a new exhibition space. Curator Xavier Llovera says the show tells a story in which both sides of the border participate fully. The exhibition will be on display until 14 February.

The narrative begins with the tragic fate of Isern Arnau, a 25-year-old farmer from la Vansa who, while trying to reach Andorra with a group of villagers fleeing the war, collapsed near Pic de Claror. On 31 October 1938 a doctor certified his death from asystole caused by cold and exhaustion; the body was identified by the episcopal mayor Anton Tomàs Gabriel and buried in Escaldes. That episode forms part of Refugiats. Andorra, país d’acollida, which premiered at Cal Pal de la Cortinada and now arrives in La Seu.

The exhibition illustrates how interwoven the stories of people crossing these mountains are, fleeing one conflict or another. Many of the luckier refugees found shelter in Andorra, especially those displaced during the Spanish Civil War. “We did not place them in concentration camps; we took them into our homes,” Llovera recalled.

The choice to exhibit in La Seu was deliberate: the author of the exhibition texts, Roser Porta, and the historian who developed much of the research for the show, Pau Chica, are both from Alt Urgell. Anna López, director of the Espai Ermengol–Museu de la Ciutat, secured the upper floor of the Civic Centre for the display and oversaw the conversion of the space, which the mayor, Joan Barrera, said his team had begun refurbishing and will complete with support from the Pla de Barris programme.

Llovera noted the historical arc on display begins “officially” with the flight of Bishop Caixal to the Principality during the Carlist Wars and continues through later waves of displacement. One notable exodus involved right‑wing residents of La Seu, who filled Andorran hotels and were also hosted by friends, relatives and acquaintances. At the time, Andorra’s institutions were limited—the Consell General had few powers and there were only seven police in the whole country—yet the human reality of people moving across the border created tangled, cross‑border stories.

Testimony in the exhibition includes the 21 October 1941 court statement of Carme Vidal of Casa Arnau d’Ars, given during an inquiry into a man found dead on Monte Cugoll between Anserall and Sant Joan Fumat. Vidal recalled two foreign men who came asking for food in late August; they paid three pesetas. Such accounts point to the many unknown people who wandered the mountains seeking shelter, and to the women—housewives and neighbours—who were often first to assist them. One section of the show pays tribute to those women.

Barrera said at the opening that remembrance is urgently necessary, especially now, and he described the exhibition as timely given the ongoing efforts to whitewash the dictator Franco’s legacy. López stressed the exhibition’s contemporary relevance: there are refugees today living in the city. Two guests from Venezuela and Colombia shared their experiences at the inauguration and will continue to work with visitors—especially school groups—to foster empathy for what becoming a refugee entails. The city’s Solidarity office and the county council’s Immigration service collaborated in organising these activities.

The exhibition also presents recent statistics from the Office for Asylum and Refuge of Catalonia: 17,488 applications were registered in 2014. Llovera points to UNHCR figures that forecast up to one billion refugees globally by 2050, a projection he suggests may even be conservative.

Richly illustrated, the show traces peak moments when refugee flows through the Pyrenees were greatest, from the Spanish Civil War to the wider European conflicts of the twentieth century, including the escape networks of World War II. Objects on display include recovered munitions such as shells from the Battle of the Ebro and machine‑gun parts; the exhibition also evokes the risks and ingenuity involved in getting such items and people across the border. The exhibition remains open to the public until 14 February.