The Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País de Valencia and the Demetrio Ribes Chair (Universitat de València) invites you to the presentation of the book 'Crónica de la línea Valencia-Tarragona' (Chronicle of the Valencia-Tarragona line). 'Los primeros trazos de hierro del Corredor Mediterráneo' (The first iron lines of the Mediterranean Corridor), volume written by Óscar Calvé Mascarell and published by the Ministry of Territorial Policy, Public Work and Mobility, and the Demetrio Ribes Chair.

Thursday 1 June 2023 at 7:00 p.m.

Assembly hall of the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Valencia (Professional Conservatory of Music of València), Edificio Histórico of the Plaza de San Esteban, 3. València

The event will rely on the presence of the Director of the RSEAPV, Manuel Portolés, and the Director of the Chair, Luis Arciniega, as well as with the author of the book, Óscar Calvé Mascarell, who will be a speaker with a talk titled 'El nacimiento del ferrocarril Valencia-Tarragona a través de la prensa. Un manual de historia en bruto' (The birth of the Valencia-Tarragona railway through press. A rough history manual).

In a society which chased the 'material and moral progress', the transcendence of the railway had no comparisson. The case of the Valencia-Tarragona line stands out. This broke the leading radial idea of the communication lines and announced, a century and a half in advance the current project of the Mediterranean Corridor. The nearness to that history through the press of the time offers suggestive information that adresses heterogeneous aspects: the engineering challenges, the polemic route associated to the febrile desire to rely on the benefits of this new transport, its use and the abuse of the promoters, the diversification of the workforce used... To sum up, those cutbacks, even subjected in content to its respective editorial lines, they configure a rough history manual that only chronological distance can polish.

Óscar Calvé Mascarell has a doctorate in Art History (2016), with an international mention and a cum laude by the Universitat de València. Bachelor's Degree Extraordinary Award (2003-2008), he had a FPI scholarship at the Department for Art History of the UV. He has conducted several researches at the Kunsthistorisches Institute of Florence. Consolidated in the field of cultural jounalism, he started teaching and researching again in 2008 at the Department of Art History of the Universitat de València, due to its incorporation to the Demetrio Ribes Chair as Doctoral Research Staff.

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