MUSEUM

BACKGROUND

The Geological Museum Valentí Masachs, which belongs of the Technical University of Catalonia is located at the School of Engineering of de Manresa. It was founded in 1980,and Dr. Valentí Masachs Alavedra was its first curator. His private collection of fossils and minerals and the samples gathered by the museum’s staff were used to set up the first mineralogical and paleontological displays with which the Museum was opened to the public.

1993 saw the incorporation of a display showing the apllications of minerals, which heralded a new stage in the museum’s educational endeavour for students and lecturers at all levels. In 1995 new displays showing the uses of rock-based materials were introduced.

In the middle of 2007, the museum opened a direct acces as for the street Bernat de Cabrera, which takes us to the space of the named museum “Area of Reflection”, where the student and the visitor can learn and reflect on: The Earth is being depleted; Radioactivity: advantages and disadvantages; Minerals and People (to see News).

The museum corrently houses a collection of approximaltely 5.000 minerals, 2.000 rocks and 3.000 fossils. The collection basically comprises samples found by staff members and pieces that are the result of private donations, exchanges and several acquisitions.

OBJECTIVES

The main aim of the museum is to offer students, lecturers and the general public a frequently changing classroom that is open to all, where they can learn about the world of minerals, rocks and fossils, their applications, their formation and characteristics, and how the use of these materials can be combined with respect for nature and the environment.

Further aims are to maintain and extend the collection, to use it for research.

The museum hopes to be a useful tool for geologist and non-geologist alike. To this end, an online advisory service has been set up to answer queries regarding the best stones to use for a particular building and location or the characteristics of a mineral or fossils in the museum’s collection. It can also be used to make individual queries and to request geological, environmental or gemological studies.

Finally, the museum aims to become a platform for the dissemination of the research that is carried out at the university on topics such as concrete to be produced without water on the moon and memory metals for dentistry. 

THE STAFF

The staff members who work at the museum include the following: