When Einstein visited the University of Barcelona

Esteve Terradas, Professor of Acoustics and Optics at the University of Barcelona (UB), was one of the first Catalan scientists to echo Albert Einstein’s theories. In addition, he was one of the architects, together with Rafael Campalans, director of the Council of Pedagogy of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, of the well-known and mediatic visit of the German physicist to the city of Barcelona at the end of February 1923, a visit that is now one hundred years are over.

Einstein’s agenda in Barcelona was full of events. Among others, he gave a massive conference at the Palace of the Generalitat —in what is today the headquarters of the Institute of Catalan Studies— and another at the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona. The chronicles of those days report that he also visited the Industrial School, where he was presented with two discs of popular music from the country, and that he attended a performance of sardanas.

Likewise, Einstein set foot on the Historical Building of the University of Barcelona. He was received by the then rector, Valentí Carulla i Margenat; the dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Simón Vila Vendrell, and the general secretary of the University, Carles Calleja. The newspaper El Noticiero Universal reported this meeting in its edition of February 26, 1923.

On the occasion of this event, the city of Barcelona now commemorates the visit of this illustrious scientist with various institutional events, a fact that served to promote Catalan science in Europe.

Einstein’s agenda in Barcelona was full of events. (Photo: General Archive of the Barcelona Provincial Council)

The University of Barcelona and Einstein

In April 1998, the magazine La Universitat, edited by the UB, published an extensive report on Esteve Terradas, who held the Chair of Acoustics and Optics at the UB until 1928. «Terradas was fluent in German and that allowed him to be at the forefront knowledge of new ideas about the mechanics of the physical world,” the article reads.

The UB’s Center for Learning and Research Resources (CRAI) has dedicated two exhibitions to the German physicist: “Einstein in our Library”, in 2005, and one dedicated to one hundred years of the theory of relativity, in 2015 (Source: UB)