Issue date: 28 Apr, 2017
Anniversaries. Pere Canturri.
Historian, politician, writer, and an outstanding ethnographer of Andorran culture and traditions, Pere Canturri was one of the most important cultural and political figures of modern Andorra.
Born in Andorra la Vella in 1935, he studied to be a teacher at the Escuela Normal de Lleida in 1956 and later completed a Bachelor’s degree in history through the UNED in the 70s.
He worked as a teacher in the village of Arinsal from 1956 until 1959, when he started working as an accountant for the General Council.
He first became involved in culture in 1960, when the important prehistoric site of Balma de Margineda was discovered, marking a turning point for research into the prehistory of Andorra and the Pyrenees. The same year he established and directed the Archaeology Service of the General Council. He later became the secretary of the Board of Culture, from 1960 to 1963, and then secretary of the Department of Social Affairs, 1963 - 1977. From 1977 to 1985 he carried out research in the fields of art and history, when he worked in the Department of National Artistic Heritage researching the prehistoric and medieval periods in Andorra.
He took part in the discovery of various prehistoric engravings, such as those of the Roc de les Bruixes in Prats in 1962, and the Romanesque paintings of La Cortinada and Nagol from 1968 to 1991. He also directed the restoration of monuments such as Sant Serni de Nagol, Sant Romà de les Bons, and La Farga Rossel, and from 1985 and 1994, the d'Areny-Plandolit Museum House, where he also served as director during the same period.
In 1962, at the request of the syndic Julià Reig, he promoted the General Council camps, following the philosophy of the Scout Movement, by organising the first mixed camps in Andorra.
He occupied various political posts for the government of Andorra: Conseller del Comú de Andorra la Vella, Minister of Social Affairs from 1994 to 1997, Minister of Culture from 1997 to 1998, and Raonador del Ciutadà, the ombudsman in dealings with the Administration, from 2004 to 2011.
Pere Canturri was also a member of the Académie du Languedoc, the Andorran National Commission for UNESCO, the Advisory Council of the Andorran Department of Cultural Heritage, the Board of the Caixabank Foundation and an honorary member of the Centre de la Cultura Catalana. In 2010 he was awarded the Ágora Cultural prize.
Author of more than a dozen books on his work in the field of history and on Andorran customs and traditions, he was recognised by the writer and journalist Robert Saladrigas as the best minister of culture that he had ever met.
Pere Canturri passed away aged 80 on 27 November 2015 in Andorra la Vella.
Rate A - €0.75. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, up to 20 g.
Rate A2 - €0.85. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, between 20 g and 50 g.
Rate B - €1.65. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20 g.
Rate C - €1.75. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world (except USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), up to 20 g.
Rate D - €2.10. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, up to 20 g.