Free registration for the first of these events is now open   

The Municipal Archive is once again opening its doors to the public with free, themed tours. Three sessions will be held before the end of the year, focusing on stories of death and grief, childhood and Christmas. 

“This is an initiative by the City Council, through the Department of Innovation, which began last year and aims to bring the archive closer to the public as a space for knowledge, public service and the city’s living memory,” explains Raquel Pérez, Councillor for Innovation.

Through themed tours tailored to the public – for which you can register free of charge – the town’s residents will be able to learn, through documents, photographs, books and other records, about the lives of the town’s people, their customs and traditions… thereby discovering the value of Fuenlabrada’s documentary heritage and the importance of keeping our collective memory alive. 

To coincide with All Saints’ Day and Halloween, the archive will be holding a guided tour entitled ‘Secrets of the Municipal Archive: Stories That Never Rest’, during which staff from the department will recount and display spine-chilling documents – records detailing murders, epidemics, burials, and accounts of war and survival.

This first guided tour of the new open-day series will take place on the 30th. Anyone interested in attending can register via the following link.

On 20 November, the guided tour will explore the history of childhood to discover what life was like for boys and girls from the 17th century right up to the 1970s and 1980s. ‘When We Were Children: Growing Up from the 17th Century’ will use documents and photographs to reveal the stories of children abandoned in the foundling home, as well as the hardships faced by families and schools. 

On 18 December, in the run-up to Christmas, the guided tour will focus on this traditional celebration. Photographs of parades brimming with excitement, snow-covered streets, festival programmes and other documents reveal how the city has celebrated Christmas. Furthermore, visitors will discover some tragic events that marked this time of year centuries ago.