Igualada Leather Museum Facts for Kids

The Igualada Leather Museum at the Cal Boyer cotton factory

The Igualada Leather Museum (called Catalan: Museu de la Pell d'Igualada in Catalan) is in Igualada, Catalonia. It opened in 1954. This museum was the first of its kind in Spain. It was also the third leather museum to open in all of Europe.

The museum's amazing collections are shown in two buildings. They are both close to each other in Igualada. One is the "Cal Boyer" building. This used to be a cotton factory in the late 1800s. The other is the "Cal Granotes" building. This building was an 18th-century tannery, where leather was made.

Exploring Leather at Cal Boyer
Cal Granotes Tannery
People and Water at Cal Boyer
Images for kids
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Exploring Leather at Cal Boyer

A large barrel used for treating leather at the Igualada Leather Museum

The main part of the Igualada Leather Museum is in the "Cal Boyer" building. This museum is special and one of the top three of its kind in Europe. It helps you learn all about leather.

There are three main areas to explore here:

"Leather in History"
"A World of Leather"
"Industrialization"

Leather Through History

The "Leather in History" area shows how leather has been used. It covers how people made and used leather in the Mediterranean region. This goes from ancient times up to more recent days.

You can learn about:

How hides were tanned (turned into leather).
Leather in ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
Parchments, which are old writing materials made from animal skin.
Bookbinding, which is how books were put together using leather.
Special types of leather like shell cordovan.
Guadamecil, a very old way of decorating leather with paint or gold.
Traditional jobs like shoemakers and people who made horse tack (equipment for horses).

A World of Leather

The "A World of Leather" section explores different ways leather connects to our lives. It shows how leather is used in sports, war, and travel. You can also see how nomads (people who move around a lot) used leather.

This area also explores the sounds and images of leather. You can even touch different types of leather. There are videos and five interactive displays. These show you how leather feels, sounds, and how strong, waterproof, and easy to drill it is.

Leather Goes Industrial

The "Industrialization" area shows how leather making changed over time. It's the last part of your visit to the museum. It shows how machines took over from handwork.

You'll see three main stages:

How leather was made in Igualada around 1890. This was a step up from the old hand methods used at "Cal Granotes".
The first machines used in leather making.
The full industrial phase, when machines became very important.

This section shows how old ways of treating leather in holes were replaced by modern barrels. It also shows how work changed from being done by hand to using electricity and advanced machines.

Cal Granotes Tannery

The "Cal Granotes" tannery with strong supports along the ditch

The "Cal Granotes" tannery is a unique part of the museum. It's about 100 meters away from "Cal Boyer". It opened to visitors in 1990. This tannery is in a very old area called "El Rec". This neighborhood is built along a ditch (a small canal). This ditch has always provided water to many tanneries.

The "Cal Granotes" building is from the 1700s. It has been fixed up to show how leather was made long ago. The building still looks like it did back then. It shows three old ways of tanning ox and cow leather by hand. This leather was mostly used for making shoe soles. These methods included:

Leather sewing
The old Moroccan system
The modern Moroccan system

The "Cal Granotes" tannery has two floors. The ground floor was where leather was prepared and tanned. The upper floor was used for drying the leather. The dried leather would hang from bars. Most of the leather made here was for shoe soles. But it was also used for:

Horse harnesses for animals and horse-drawn carriages.
Backs and seats of chairs.
Later, for making belts for steam-powered factories.

In the early 1700s, leather workers in Igualada moved their businesses. They left the old medieval town walls. They built new factories along the "El Rec" water ditch. This ditch was first mentioned in documents from the 1100s. It was used by mills even before the tanneries. The ditch is about 3,049 meters long. It gets its water from the Anoia river through a lock.

People and Water at Cal Boyer

This exhibition opened in 1991 inside the "Cal Boyer" building. It shows how water is important to people and society. It covers many topics about water, such as:

How water is moved to higher places.
How water is used in homes.
What water actually is.
How water affects our health.
How water is used for business.

In 1992, this exhibition won the "FAD prize" for its great design.

The museum also shows how water can be turned into energy. You can see a big steam engine and a noria (a water wheel). These machines were once used in the "Cal Boyer" cotton factory. A mud noria has also been fixed up. This type of noria used to lift water for irrigation (watering crops).