The flag will occupy the Bank of Spain in Tarragona

It will not be a science museum nor an exhibition space. The old building of the Bank of Spain in Tarragona will become a center of communication. It will have a small portion of a permanent exhibition and a larger one that will be renewed each season and will revolve around a specific theme: green hydrogen, water, archeology … in this way one of the most coveted corners of the city, on Full Rambla Nova, will come back to life through a facility that will be his Entrance is free, and will have a cafeteria as well as multi-purpose spaces for presentations, meetings and other events.

“We will be able to carry out many procedures, and it will be a very dynamic place with spaces for experiment, workshops, scientific meetings or dissertation and research publication,” explains Jordi Fortuny, a treasury advisor at City Hall. Director of Tarragona Cultura i Coneixement (FTCC), Director of Equipment. Fortuny took over the reins in an abandoned Bank of Spain in March last year, 17 years after the building closed and ten years after moving it to City Council. “I only found a schematic diagram … Within three months we had to implement the basic project and then we started working around the clock with the executive project,” explains the board member. A few days ago, the tender for the design of equipment facilities closed, but the bulk of the project is being developed by a team of dozens of local technicians led by architects Rogelio Jiménez and Raquel Casals.

Access will be free, you will enter from the side that crosses the old cellar, and the dome will crown the enclosure

The endless and sometimes heated debate about what the symbolic Bank of Spain should be like is over. The possibility of locating the large tourist reception desk, the Roman Tarraco entrance gate, a downtown civic center, a museum of chemistry or even a mosque, an idea that was launched during a municipal election campaign, has been analyzed.

Finally, it was decided to transfer it to the Science Bank. The idea was approved by the Feder Funds, through which 1.9 of a little more than 5 million euros would be invested in the restoration and repair of the building. Deadlines are running out and the calendar is pressing. Fortuny hopes to start work at the end of the year or early next year so that it can launch the venue in 2023, twenty years after it closed.

From a “smart” organization to a cultural institution

Although the intention of the municipal government team at the start of the Legislative Council was to dispense with the Smart City Foundation, which was born and continued under the umbrella of the Mediterranean Games, it was finally decided to re-convert it – with a new director (Laura Pico), the new director (Chancellor Jordi) Fortuny) and the new laws at the Tarragona Cultura i Coneixement (FTCC). The entity’s goal now is to lead programs, projects, and actions to “achieve a more organized, inclusive and participatory city.” His first task is to develop the Science and Knowledge Bank project as a space for scientific and technological publishing and citizen meetings.

The most distinctive element of a future science bank will be the thirteen-meter-diameter dome that will crown the building, which has an area of ​​about 2,650 square meters, and is built over five floors (semi-basement, ground floor, two floors, and roof). Visitors enter from the side, go down some stairs, and enter the fence through the basement
What was once the headquarters vault of the Bank of Spain.

From the outside, the building will retain its neoclassical look; Inside, there will be five distinctly different spaces: the Science Gallery in the basement; space Networks Coffee and permanent exhibition Science Challenges On the ground floor; The space explore! And the hall is on the first floor; Laboratories and rooms Workshops in the space Experience – did experiments! On the second floor there is a balcony that will be dedicated to receptions and social activities. Designed as an immersive room for transport and publishing activities, here will be a dome.