Escaldes-Engordany Unveils Murals Honoring Historic Women Laundry Workers

Escaldes-Engordany parish held the official inauguration of murals by artist Samantha Bosque on Wednesday in Plaça dels Safareigs, as part of Projecte Caldes. The works pay tribute to the women who washed laundry at the area's thermal-water basins in the early 20th century, drawing from archive photos since no physical remnants survive—the last safareig was removed around 1987.

The event turned the square into a lively space, featuring the activation of new lighting for the murals and nearby bridges at Tosca and Engordany. It also included a dance piece, Dones d’Aigua by Líquid Dansa, performed by women as a homage to the former basin users and staged under shelter at Espai Caldes amid afternoon rain.

Bosque called the location emblematic and expressed delight in the project, which she said aimed to reclaim a piece of Escaldes' historical memory tied to the symbolic safareigs. With no direct references available, she relied on archive images that shaped the final artwork. While painting over recent months, she gathered inspiration from locals' accounts of family experiences at the basins.

Síndic Major Rosa Gili framed the murals within the broader Caldes revitalization effort, which she said has greatly improved the surroundings. The initiative seeks to highlight water-related heritage central to the parish's identity, with the lighting now accentuating cultural and artistic elements at night. Gili noted the rain fittingly echoed the water theme, from thermal springs to rivers and precipitation.

The gathering concluded with speeches followed by the dance performance, linking the historical figures in the murals to the modern dancers and evoking everyday life around the vanished washing sites.