Universitat de València

The exhibition “175th Anniversary of Official Cartography. Completing the map of Spain” is intended to highlight the work carried out by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) since its founding in 1870. The Universitat de València, through the Office of the Vice-Principal for Participation and Territorial Projection, along with IGN, seeks showing citizens some key elements for insight into the Spanish geography. The set of panels that make up this exhibition, written by members of IGN, review the history of this institution and its various projects undertaken. This journey through time and geography shows the initial difficulties in establishing a modern state’s cartography in the nineteenth century, the work required in geodesic triangulation, levelling or representation of jurisdictional boundaries of the territory, among others, to achieve today a geographic corpus with material as the Topographic Map of Spain or the National Atlas of Spain. It is a work of nearly two centuries that allow us to know the territory in a detailed and modern way. A required exhibition for the Spanish and Valencian cartography, where panels which bring us closer to our environment, as in the case of Ontinyent and Gandia are included.