Sant Jordi 2022 in Barcelona: The Catalan Valentine's Day is Back With More Events!
As the poster* of Sant Jordi 2022 published by the Ayuntamiento de Barcelona (designed by Josep Prat Sorolla / SEPE) implies, this year will be a bombardment of books and roses to celebrate the first Sant Jordi that will be held in full normality since the beginning of the pandemic. As in the good old days, there will be author-reader meetings with book signing events and lots of activities around the special day known as “Catalan Valentine’s Day” meeting “UNESCO World Book Day”.
As one of the UNESCO City of Literature, Barcelona treats this special day as it deserves to be held. The author discussions and special events have already started in the beginning of the week including many famous participants including Blanca Llum Vidal, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Maksim Óssiopv, Eva Baltasar, Marta Carnicero, Laura Gost, David Trueba, Juan Tallón, Burhan Sönmez, Simona Škrabec, Orhan Pamuk, Jo Nesbø and Núria Bendicho.
For Sant Jordi celebrations in Barcelona this year the city also hosts a 'superilla literària' between the streets of Gran Via and Avenida Diagonal, Pau Claris and Balmes occupying more than 140.000 square meters for this special event at the heart of the city, while Passeig de Gràcia will be reserved for professional booksellers and florists, Rambla de Catalunya will be special for associations and organizations. A space of more than 140,000 square meters in the heart of the city is dedicated to the celebration of books and literature.
If you wonder what’s more for Sant Jordi 2022, the calendar is as follows:
Friday, April 22nd:Imma Monsó will be the town crier of the day and will make the Proclamation of Reading 2022, at 6:00 pm in the Saló de Cent. She will talk with Anna Guitart about her work and the importance of libraries in her life. The writer joins the list of town criers of this honorary act of the city, and follows in the footsteps of Almudena Grandes, José Saramago, Emili Teixidó, and Irene Vallejo, last year's town crier, among many other writers.
Saturday, April 23rd: To start with the day, the Barcelona City Council organizes a breakfast at the Palau de la Virreina, at 9.30 am where Imma Monsó, the town crier, will be present, as well as booksellers and publishers.
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Jose Saramago, a collaboration has been established between the Libraries of Barcelona, the Network of Libraries of Lisbon and the delegation of the government of Catalonia to pay tribute to the author in a joint act and to broadcast a fragment of the proclamation made by Saramago in Barcelona in the 2004 Barcelona Reading Proclamation, and a dialogue with Francesc Escribano, who interviewed him, and Miguel Real, moderated by the journalist Isabel Lucas. The event will be held at the Palácio Galveias Library in Lisbon, but will also be available live on the Biblioteques de Barcelona YouTube channel. (Source: TimeOut)
For more information: The Barcelona City Council has scheduled more activities for the celebration of the day in the city, which will be announced in the coming days.
*If you want to get a paper copy of the poster of Sant Jardi 2022 until it’s sold out there will be one copy available per person in Sala Ciudad de Barcelona!
