The geological and topographic map of Barcelona province: 1:40.000 serie (1888-1914)

Topographic and geologic mapping of the province of Barcelona is studied. This cartography was carried out by Jaume Almera, geologist, and Eduard Brossa, engraver and topographer, thanks to subsidies from the regional council. Made with exceptional detail for its time and presented in an unusual, magnificent lay out, the map was unanimously praised from the onset. The geological part, by Almera, is of high quality due to the rigorous stratigraphic and petrologic work which was supported by several European specialists, and also to the thorough follow-up of the outcrops in the field. Although it more than fulfils its objective as a support to geology, the topography is only approximate because it was based on only a few geodetic points; it lacked both a previous revision and a standard procedure for drawing level curves.
The map management can be exclusively credited to Almera. Bofill was the theoretical co-director on behalf of the council, but he never acted as such; his participation was limited to beginning a sheet of the map but this progressed no further. The council approved all Almera's decisions until 1899 when some discrepant voices were first heard. Around 1909, coinciding with a moment of politic and social change, institutional support for the work dwindled and both work and subventions decreased dramatically. This meant the publication of the last two map sheets was drastically delayed. Brossa depended directly on Almera who he billed for his work. Other collaborations were marginal, though two students should be mentioned: Norbert Font i Sagué, who drew fossils to illustrate some of Almera's papers and excavated a pair of fossil vertebrates; and Marià Faura i Sans, who revised the Palaeozoic fauna and the petrology of rocks. Moreover, both of them made a few field trips, but only occasionally accompanied Almera.
The work did not develop from an initial plan but from a single sheet which was an enlargement of a previous map on a scale of 1:100.000. The project was defined over time; the sheets of the map were formatted around 1895, and its definitive distribution did not take shape until 1905. For this reason, Almera stated, on request from the council, that it was not possible to create a budget or fix terms. The Map went no further than the initial stages. In 1914, after publishing five sheets of the map, Almera decided not to continue and proposed Faura i Sans as successor. The council then decided to transfer administration of the project to the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, the research centre of the new regional government. The mapped surface was around 2,500 Km2, almost 1/3 of the surface of the province, corresponding to the coast and areas close to Barcelona. It is no surprise that Almera began with the nearest, best communicated and better known localities from a topographic point of view. These areas were also the most interesting because of their geology and the fossils contained therein. Almera does not appear to have had a plan to continue the map to the NW either in the continental Paleogene or in the pre-Pyrenean Mesozoic.
Almera and Brossa's Map influenced the future of Catalan geology, whose history would probably have differed considerably without this precedent. At the same time, it constitutes a solid base for what we refer to today as the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, taken into account in all later geological mapping. Furthermore, it established a tradition of geological studies within the Catalan administrative institutions which continues today.

Key words: History of science, 19th-20th Centuries, Geology, Cartography, Spain, Catalonia, Barcelona, Almera.