Alfredo Rocafort, Professor of Financial Economics and Accounting at the University of Barcelona, member of the Board of Governors of the Fundación Independiente, full member of the Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences and full member and President of the Board of Governors of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ); Ignacio Buqueras, President of the Foundation of the Association for the Dissemination and Promotion of the World Heritage of Spain–Adiprope, Honorary President of the Spanish Confederation of Organisations for Older People, full member of the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain and emeritus member of the READ; Juan Trias de Bes, Director of the hARQware Platform Chair at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia, member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of the Construction Board of the Sagrada Familia of Barcelona and full member of the READ; Chiara Curti, professor at the Sant Pacià University Athenaeum in Barcelona and author of the book “The Sagrada Familia, Cathedral of Light”; and Josep Maria Tarragona, writer, journalist and renowned biographer of Antoni Gaudí, presented this Wednesday, 8 April, the Series of Commemorative Panels for the Centenary of the Death of Antoni Gaudí, which the Royal Academy will hold between 15 April and 10 June.

The series will be structured around eight sessions entitled “Gaudí and His Time,” “Gaudí, His Biography,” “Gaudí, Architect,” “Gaudí and the Sagrada Familia,” “Gaudí and Modernism,” “Gaudí and His Legacy,” “Gaudí and His Mysticism”, and “Gaudí: Architecture, Education and Spirituality.” Institutions of significance that have confirmed their participation in and support for the series include the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, the Madrid Press Association, the Circle of Fine Arts, the Club Financiero Génova, the Catalan Circle of Madrid, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the Ateneo de Madrid, the Spanish Episcopal Conference and Camilo José Cela University, among others. The sessions will be compiled in a monograph.

The series is preceded by the discussion panels that the Fundación Independiente, under the presidency of Buqueras, promoted and organised in 2002 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Gaudí’s birth. On that occasion, the sessions were held at the Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, the Ateneo de Madrid, the Cultural Foundation of the College of Architects, the Centro Cultural Blanquerna, the Circle of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. The subjects presented and debated by leading specialists gave attendees engaging insights into the Gaudí world.

Likewise, in 2022, two decades after the historic event now being commemorated, Buqueras promoted the “Second National Gaudí Conferences in Madrid,” likewise synthesised in a book gathering the works presented at the conference, which on this occasion was held under the organisation of the Adiprope Foundation and the Gaudí Centre of Madrid. As in the first edition, the aim of the event was to study, analyse and debate the work of the renowned architect, focusing on his unique vision of this discipline from both its technical and artistic dimensions.