This Saint Goerge’s Day we wanted to recover a tradition of ours: the auca. A pictorial story typical of Catalan culture that consists of vignettes accompanied by two-line verses that make a couplet. The aucas are always presented on a single page and are considered the ancestor of the comic.
The Casa Batlló auca explains the legend of St. George and will be given away on April 23rd for any purchase in our store, while stocks last.
The “auca” have been created in collaboration with Joan Grau i Martí as writer and Eduard Altarriba i Bigas as cartoonist.
Brief history of the “auca”
Origins (16th century)
It began as a game of chance and betting in the 16th century in Florence. The auca was used as a board and the game was played with a bag with balls that had numbers and images related to the auca.
Evolution in Catalonia (17th and 18th centuries)
The oldest example of Catalan culture is from the 17th century. At the end of the 18th century, the themes were extended and expanded (animals, festivities, children’s games, stories of soldiers, religious processions…).
Publishing boom (19th century)
In the 19th century, aucas experienced their splendor due to the printing press. Many adopted a pedagogical tone, since it was an ideal way to transmit knowledge among a largely illiterate population. For this reason, the subject matter increased with the publication of biographies, summaries of plays, fables… In Barcelona and Valencia they became a publishing phenomenon, spreading to Madrid and Castile.
20th Century
With the turn of the century its production decreased and the genre has been used occasionally, for example in schools, relating to certain celebrations.
