Valentí Almirall i Llozer

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Valentí Almirall i Llozer (1841–1904) was a Catalan politician and a founder of modern Catalan nationalism, especially its left wing. He came from a comfortable Barcelona family; his father was a drug and colonial goods merchant, and his mother was heir to the Barony of El Papiol, a title he chose not to use. He studied philosophy and law at the University of Barcelona, learned several languages, and helped start Catalan-language theatre with writer Frederic Soler (Pitarra).

Almirall became active in politics during the Revolution of 1868. He directed the radical newspaper El Federalista and wrote pamphlets calling for a federal Spain. He supported a federal structure for Spain and helped organize the Pact of Tortosa in 1869. He led the intransigent federalist faction in Barcelona within the Federal Democratic Republican Party, founded the Club dels Federalistes, and the newspaper El Estado Catalán. After a failed revolt, he was captured and exiled, then returned to Barcelona.

Back home, he directed the Casa de la Caritat and wrote about social reform. During the First Spanish Republic, he published El Estado Catalán from Madrid before returning to Catalonia. Under the Bourbon Restoration he turned more to literature, writing under a pseudonym and later starting the first Catalan-language newspaper, Diari Català, in 1879, which he directed until 1881.

Almirall helped organize Catalanist institutions: the First Catalanist Congress (1880), the Centre Català (founded 1882), and the Second Catalanist Congress (1883). He wrote Lo catalanisme in 1886, the first systematic statement of Catalanist ideas. As younger groups grew, he saw the rise of the Lliga de Catalunya and eventually focused on cultural work, founding the Biblioteca Arús (1895) and serving as president of the Ateneu Barcelonès (1896). He died in 1904, leaving his house to support a public school and donating his books to the Biblioteca Arús. A tower in Vallvidrera marks the place where he lived.