 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
+34 670 641 767
+34 670 641 767
A FAMILY HISTORY
It was in the 1940s when a young couple, Manuel and Milagros, arrived in Barcelona to start a new life.
She, a great embroiderer, finds work in La Orquídea, a famous workshop located since 1923 at number 27 of the Portal de l'Àngel. He began working as a raincoat laundress at the old Tintoreria J. Canet in Barcelona, in the Sagrada Família district.
They have a daughter, Pilar, and soon after Manuel's three brothers arrive in the city looking for a future. Immediately two of the brothers, Miro and Andrés join the staff of the Canet dry cleaner's where all three will learn the trade.
.jpg)
Grandpa Antonio, the three dyer brothers, Milagros and Pilarin in a park in Barcelona.
Manuel, Milagros, José, Pilar and José Manuel on the façade of the new workshop on Smidel Street in Montevideo in 1968
In 1952 Manuel and Milagros and their daughter went to the Americas to settle in Montevideo.
There Manuel works as a press ironer at the American Dry Cleaner, a business of the Marriquiain family, while saving to be able to set up his own dry cleaner.
The dream comes true when the Smidel Street dry cleaner's is born. Milagros leaves her job and they start working together.
Andres, who had stayed at the Casa Canet in Barcelona, is leaving with his wife, Victoria, and their first child for Montevideo. There he will do the same as his older brother, and soon after will set up his own dry cleaner's in the neighborhood of La Unión.
Miro, the third dyer's brother, stays in Barcelona where he ends up setting up another dry cleaner's in the Horta district.
The business continues to grow and in 1963 Pili, the second generation, married José, another Spaniard, a tailor by trade, who had arrived in the country a few years earlier.
A few years later, on Smidel Street, they bought land and built a new dry cleaner's, where they moved in 1964.
At the end of the decade Manuel and Milagros return to Europe. José joins the trade and the second generation takes over the management of the business.
The country becomes economically and politically unstable and the whole family thinks of returning to Spain. In 1970, Manuel and Milagros, from Spain, began to prepare for the return of the family and bought an old dry cleaner's in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona. The Santa Marta dry cleaner's.
The dry cleaner's, which at the time is run by a second generation of dry cleaners, has lived better times, has few customers and almost no machinery, but the couple see potential in the neighborhood and the local, and think it's a good place to start over. And make no mistake.
On Christmas Day 1972, Pilar, José and their two sons José Manuel and Gabriel arrive at the port of Barcelona where their grandparents are waiting for them. Family and friends are left behind.
Manuel, Milagros, José, Pilar, José Manuel and Gabi at a party in 1970. The three generations in full shortly before leaving for Spain.
 |
|---|
 |
 |
Miracles in 1970 showing us the new machines in Santa Marta on Carrer Gran de Sant Andreu
_edited.jpg)
The store on Carrer Gran de Sant Andreu, although it seemed small from the outside, was more than 400 square meters.
.jpg)
On the facade of the building was an image of Santa Marta, from which the business takes its name. It was an 18th century terracotta work. Below you can see an indulgence tombstone that reads:
"On August 20, 1737, 40 days of indulgences were granted, saying a Our Father and a Hail Mary in front of St. Martha for the most illustrious Bishop of Barcelona, Mr. Felipe d'Aguada."
The store on Carrer Gran de Sant Andreu is a very spacious two-floors shop with a patio, three terraces and a covered hairdryer. It also has an annex built in the 50s as a workshop for washing in water.
The entire upper floor is intended for storage and although at first it is practically empty, in the last years of operation it will remain small.
In general the facilities are outdated but are perfect for the traditional dry cleaners that the whole family imagines from the beginning.
With few major transformations, the premises, with more than 400 useful square meters, allowed to perform all sorts of unusual specialties in a neighborhood dry cleaner's, such as carpet cleaning or dyeing and restoration of leather and leather garments.
In 1973 they opened a second store at 94 Passeig de Torras i Bages in the same district of Sant Andreu.
These are years of expansion and continued growth.
At the beginning of the 80's they opened the third shop with a workshop on Carrer Lorena, in the Guineueta district, a newly created area.
Meanwhile, Andrés and Victoria with their three children have also returned to the country and settled in Zaragoza where they are once again setting up a dry cleaner's.
In 1984 Manuel and Milagros retired, and that same year the dry cleaner's on Carrer Lorena was transferred. An era of concentrating work in the shop on Gran Street is beginning. In 1989 the Torras i Bages store closed.
In 1990 José Manuel, the third generation, fully joined the team and with him, a unique find, Carme, his girlfriend, also joined.
In 1992 they married and two years later they took over the business. These are years of hard work, and the store is starting to get small. The couple already has two daughters, a lot of work and little time to enjoy. They want a life change. Finally in 2007 they closed the store in Barcelona and left for La Seu d'Urgell, where they will begin a new vital stage.
 |  |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |  |
 |
_edited.jpg)
In La Seu, they take a dry cleaner's that had recently closed at number 4 on Carrer de Sant Ermengol.
There they open their new store, and how could it be otherwise is called Santa Marta.
It is an artisanal and traditional dry cleaner's like the one in Barcelona, much more modest in size but with the same ambitions: to become, from work with a profession and close service, the city's leading dry cleaners .