The city on display

Despite having been designed to be invisible, Fontilles had to be on constant display. “Propaganda” was the term used to designate all the activities aimed at showcasing the social, spiritual and health work conducted at Fontilles, and at collecting the financial and political support, both public and private, needed for Fontilles to sustain its activities for over a hundred years, enduring a war, two monarchies, two dictatorships and one republic. Ever since its first issue was published in 1904, when the first buildings were barely visible in the valley, the Fontilles magazine was a key tool in this promotional and fundraising task.

The magazine reached thousands of subscribers throughout Spain, who in some places organised themselves into charity groups, the so-called Fontilles peñas amigas. The money boxes are a symbolic testimony to this human, social, material, and economic support which also resulted in the periodic trips organised by the peñas to visit the Fontilles inhabitants and officially deliver all the funds raised. The countless fundcollecting campaigns conducted on the streets or the charity events such as bullfights, football matches and all kinds of public events also played a significant role in sustaining this collective project.