LIVING

The traditional nativity scene has been around since the 12th century, when the first one is said to have been made by Saint Francis of Assisi. Spreading around the Mediterranean from Italy, the trend found a home in Catalunya—first in the large displays put up in churches and squares and later in the intricate scenes set up in houses all across the region during the festive season.

Abel Plana is president of the Amícs del Pessebre de Santa María del Mar. Every year since 2002, his group have worked on the pessebre for El Born’s famous cathedral, which has grown over the years to become the huge 32m² display they have today. Working each weekend from October until early December, when the finished piece is unveiled and consecrated, the group choose a different theme each year. “This time it’s going to tie in with the sea,” Abel hints.

In October this year the Amícs launched the Escola-Taller de Pessebres de Barcelona; the first of its kind in the city. Still without a permanent base, the school meets every Wednesday using borrowed spaces and teaches traditional techniques for modelling, painting and decorating pessebres. The finished models will be displayed in Casa dels Entremesos, with a step-by-step guide to how the models are made.

“The good thing is that we have people of all ages, from 16 to 60,” Abel says. “And it’s not particularly a religious thing either. Of course, everyone in the group has their own beliefs, but pessebrisme is more about Catalan culture and keeping traditions alive.”

Across town at the top of Passeig de Gràcia, Mireia Grisolia would be inclined to agree with him. She runs Reixach-Campanyà, a cavern-like treasure trove of religious art which has occupied the same spot for just short of 100 years and which comes alive each Christmas with a stunning display of nativity scenes. She says that pessebres are enjoying something of a resurgence thanks to parents who want to give their children the traditional Christmas they remember from their own childhoods.

Mireia’s family business was founded by the sculptor Josep Reixach in 1874 and, after being sold to her great-grandfather in 1923, has been passed down through three generations of women in the family until Mireia today. Her father still pops in from time to time, while her 6-month-old daughter sleeps in a cot in a brightly wallpapered corner of the office.“At its peak under my great-grandad, there were 20 craftsmen working here,” Mireia says, waving an arm across the vast workshop. “But over the years demand fell and the workmen, one by one, retired or died. When I started out, we had no one making models here at all.”