25 Facts About Ventura Gassol

Bonaventura Gassol i Rovira, known as Ventura Gassol, was a Catalan poet, playwright and politician.

Bonaventura Gassol i Rovira was born in La Selva del Camp, Baix Camp, on 6 October 1893.

Ventura Gassol was enrolled in the Pontifical Seminary of Tarragona, where he received a humanistic education.

Ventura Gassol abandoned his ecclesiastical studies in 1913 and moved to Barcelona the next year.

In 1916 the Cultural Council of the City of Barcelona was established and Gassol was given a position in the office of Educational Technical Assistance.

Ventura Gassol began to contribute to magazines and won local awards for his poetry, which was published in his first collection in 1917, Amfora.

Ventura Gassol began to publish short stories and novels, although these were less successful than his poetry and drama.

In 1924 Ventura Gassol was threatened with jail and fled to France, where he became acquainted with Francesc Macia, the future president of Catalonia.

Ventura Gassol was arrested by the French police in Perpignan and taken to Paris, where he was tried and convicted along with Macia and forty other Catalans.

Ventura Gassol soon became a public figure due to his effective oratory.

Ventura Gassol addressed the crowd from the palace balcony in the Placa de Sant Jaume in Barcelona.

Ventura Gassol was appointed Minister of the Interior, and a few days later was named Minister of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia.

Ventura Gassol promoted a secular Catalan culture that would meet the needs of all social classes.

Ventura Gassol decreed compulsory bilingual teaching in schools, and created the Normal School and the Institute-School, where teachers were trained in Catalan.

Ventura Gassol established a Radio Committee to study the structure of radio in Catalonia and the potential for using the medium to spread culture.

In 1931 Ventura Gassol was elected a deputy to the Constituent Cortes, where he defended the Catalan language and the Statute of Autonomy.

Ventura Gassol retained the position of Minister of Culture in the succeeding government of Lluis Companys.

Ventura Gassol was detained in the vessel Uruguay, then transferred to the prison in Cartagena.

Ventura Gassol went into exile in France by airplane on 23 October 1936, and announced his resignation from the Ministry of Culture on 17 December 1936.

Ventura Gassol continued to contribute to the Revista de Catalunya in exile.

In 1946 Ventura Gassol settled on a farm in the Touraine in France.

Ventura Gassol married Lucia Wilde in Lausanne on 27 January 1947.

Ventura Gassol sold his farm and moved to Tours in 1972.

Ventura Gassol spent the last years of his life in Selva del Camp.

Ventura Gassol died in Tarragona on 19 September 1980, aged 86.