Vide Cotidiana / Home Life

From the end of the 19th century, domestic interiors experienced a transformation. Economic development, driven by industrialisation, favoured the growth of the bourgeois classes and the consumer society. Innovations in building materials (cement, glass, iron, tiles, etc.), the appearance of new rooms such as galleries, dining rooms and bathrooms, and the introduction of commodities such as electricity and running water made it possible to build new spacious, bright, hygienic, and comfortable dwellings. The new buildings that were built in the Grau/Grado suburbs, from the popular dwellings to the Indian chalets, began to incorporate all these new features.

The industrial production of furniture and household goods made them cheaper and made it possible to equip the houses with all kinds of objects. Thus, interiors began to be decorated in the latest fashion, with new furniture in different shapes and styles: in bedrooms, dressing tables, wardrobes, washbasins, and basins; in living rooms, sideboards for storing crockery, glassware and cutlery, armchairs, tables and chairs; and wall decoration with pictures, photographs, mirrors and paintings. However, there are differences between working-class and country homes and those of the wealthy classes.

This space recreates the living room of a middle-class home in Grau/Grado in the first half of the 20th century, with some of the furniture and utensils that were originally found in this palace.

El despacho / The office

Running a business was never an easy task. Keeping up to date with the accounting books, goods in and out, staff salaries, prices of goods in wholesale shops, correspondence with suppliers and customers... All this required an office and a small archive. Moreover, the Grau/Grado shopkeepers had to take on this work on their own. For this reason, in their homes, or in a space in the commercial premises, there was always a small office, with a desk and filing cabinets, where the tedious task of keeping the accounts up to date was carried out. Tasks of yesteryear that today have been computerised, but which in the past required various types of ledgers, typewriters, pen and ink, and a great deal of calculation expertise.

In this space we can admire some of the elements of these places, where before the days of computers, women and men who ran a business spent many hours balancing accounts.

	Inauguration of the statue dedicated to Manuel Pedregal (disappeared) on 2nd september of 1897. It was in the centre of the park. Private archive of Pilar Llorca López
	Portrait of the González Miranda family. In the middle, Joaquín González López surrounded by his six children. From left to right: Manuel, Rogelio, Ángeles, Emilio, Joaquín and Clara. Circa 1910 R. G. Duarte Private archive of Pilar Llorca López
	Clara González Miranda and Braulio Gómez Aguirre, founder of the popular cider house El Infierno, on the balcony of his house.  Circa 1890 Private archive of the Martínez family
	The sisters Margarita and Pilar Huerta González (Margarita and Pilar “del Cristín”), in a stripped dress, with their mother Manuela González and their neighbours in Ríu Martín.  Circa 1920 Private archive of Marta and Manolita “del Cristín”.

Fotos de la galería

	María de los Ángeles González Miranda with her siblings Joaquín and Clara on the day of the children’s battalion. 1908 Private archive of Pilar Llorca López
	The sisters Julita, Concepción and Alicia Martínez Flórez standing next to an unidentified child and Ángeles Corugedo Fernández seated, in the garden of the Martínez family season. Circa 1910 Private archive of the Martínez family
	Ángeles Corugedo Fernández, Concepción Martínez Flórez and two unidentified men on a park bench.  1st August 1915 Private archive of the Martínez family
	On a trip to Doriga (Salas). At the steering wheel Carmen Corugedo Fernández, seated at the back: Concepción Martínez Flórez and Ángeles Corugedo Fernández, together with an unidentified woman. Circa 1915. Private archive of the Martínez family
	Women and children strolling in the park. Circa 1900. Private archive of the Martínez family
	Studio portrait of a married couple of Grau/Grado. Circa 1870-1880. Ramón del Fresno Cueli. Private archive of Pilar Llorca López
	Studio portrait of a married couple of Grau/Grado. Circa 1870-1880 Ramón del Fresno Cueli. Private archive of Pilar Llorca López