The Amposta City Council has signed a collaboration agreement with the family of writer Sebastià Juan Arbó for the loan of a significant collection of family photographs. This material will become part of the Arbó documentary collection, preserved at the Municipal Archive. The agreement was formalized with Jorge Sebastià Juan Regolf, who has donated to the council a collection comprising 406 photographs spanning the period between 1920 and 1990.
This documentary material will be incorporated into the Arbó collection and will undergo cataloging and digitization. The aim is to ensure its preservation and facilitate public access, given its significant historical and cultural value. The mayor, Adam Tomàs, and the Councilor for Culture and Historical Memory, Inés Martí, thanked the family for their trust in contributing to the preservation of the writer's legacy. "These photographs will allow us to better understand both the figure of Sebastià Juan Arbó and the historical and social context of his time," Martí stated.
The new acquisition reinforces the work of preserving and disseminating the legacy of Sebastià Juan Arbó that the City Council has been promoting for years. Five years ago, the inventory of the writer's documentary collection was completed, cataloging 543 documentary units, many of which had been donated by Arbó's family.
The inventory was carried out by philologist Joan Antoni Forcadell, a specialist in the writer's work, with the archival support of technicians from the Amposta Municipal Archive and the Montsià Regional Archive. This work has been fundamental in organizing, studying, and valuing the documentary heritage of one of the most relevant literary figures of 20th-century Catalan literature.
The promotion and study of Arbó's work have continued to generate notable initiatives, such as the First Congress dedicated to Sebastià Juan Arbó, an academic and educational event that brought together specialists and scholars of his literary career. Furthermore, Joan Antoni Forcadell has significantly contributed to research on the author, receiving the III Jordi Fontanet Award for his work on the novel project "El ángel se durmió" and overseeing the re-edition of works like "Totes les narracions del Delta", helping to keep Arbó's literary legacy alive and accessible.
