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Maria Castanyer Figueras

Girona 1913 - Blanes 2003.

Year of approval: 2004

Length: 221 metres

Location: Santa Eugènia, 17006

Poetess and Catalan writer.

She was the second of eight siblings, and at the age of five she suffered a polio attack that left severe consequences for one leg. During her childhood she lived between Girona, Olot and Cassà de la Selva. In 1925 the whole family returned to Girona, and Maria began to study at the Carmelites. In the early thirties he moved to Barcelona, ​​to the house of an uncle, to learn how to make hats. But the political events made her return to Girona where she worked as a dressmaker. The Civil War brought changes to the family, with some brothers on the front and his father in prison for six months because of being a"messenger". After the war, Maria suffered a number of health problems, and then decided to move to Madrid, where she studied journalism, among other things. When returning to Girona, she reopened his sewing studio and began writing. She moved again to Barcelona and in her studio, during the Franco regime, held underground conferences. She traveled through Europe and settled in Blanes, but also twice moved to the United States where she would convert to the Mormon faith, which she would later abandon. She returned to Catalonia, first to the Espluga de Francolí, where she taught English, and then to Blanes, where she died at the age of ninety.

She was part of the initiating team of the magazine Presència de Girona. Her work has been awarded in multiple Floral Games, but the most important was the one in 1959, which was the winner of the natural flower of the Exile Floral Games held in Paris.

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