The Dénia City Council has inaugurated the public exhibition of objects belonging to the legacy of local historian Emilio Oliver Sanz de Bremond, coinciding with the centenary of his birth. The collection, linked to the personal and professional life of Oliver Sanz de Bremond, is now part of the collections of the Archeology and Museums Area and has been temporarily arranged in one of the rooms of the Casa de Valero in Palma. The exhibit will be open to the public through the Christmas holidays, with free guided tours scheduled for December 26, 2023 and January 2, 2024, at 11 a.m.
The official presentation of the collection took place this Thursday, with the presence of the mayor of the city, Vicent Grimalt, the head of the Archeology and Museums Area, Massu Sentí, and the Councilor for Culture, Raúl Garcia de la Reina, as well as family and friends of the prominent historian. Oliver Sanz de Bremond is known for his works, among them, The Denia of the XNUMXth century. Customs prints (1972) and Dénia history (1979), being remembered by the mayor as an "altruistic man" who donated the land where the current Plaza de Jaume I is located.
Emilio Oliver Sanz de Bremond was born in Dénia on April 19, 1923, in the Torrecremada house. This event will be commemorated with a plaque on one of the building's facades once its rehabilitation process is completed. The execution of the commemorative tombstone has been carried out by Antonio Ortega, a personal friend of Oliver, and has had the support of the Marqués de Dos Aguas Beneficial Heritage Foundation, through the mediation of the Dénia Foundation.
The collection is presented in three main thematic blocks. A set of five portraits makes up the gallery of the historian's ancestors, members of a saga "intertwined with ties of kinship, forging the Dénia of the XNUMXth century and much of the XNUMXth", in the words of Massu Sentí. Names that endure in the memory of the city of Dénia, such as Elena Morand Morand, grandmother of the historian, or Francisca Moreno, great-grandmother.
The second block focuses on the figure of Emilio Castelar, president of the First Spanish Republic, prominent speaker and writer, and his relationship with the family of Emilio Oliver Sanz de Bremond. The exhibition includes part of the Castelar Library, a collection of 24 volumes acquired by the Dénia City Council between 2017 and 2022, as well as one of the most emblematic pieces of the legacy: the statesman's death mask, donated to the family of Emilio Oliver by Castelar's widow.
The third block reflects Oliver's professional career through various academic degrees, his personal life through his wife, Carmen Momparler Baviera, an "exceptional, independent and tremendously ahead of her time woman," as described by Massu. Sentí. The exhibition also shows elements from the professional life of Oliver Sanz de Bremond, such as his desk, armchair and portfolio. On the desk, a portrait of Emilio Oliver made by his friend Barreira.
Through this journey through everyday and at the same time extraordinary objects in the life of Emilio Oliver Sanz de Bremond, the exhibition allows an approach to the figure of the historian and the "man who was made in Dénia", paying tribute to him on the centenary of his birth.
