Ornithology

The Ornithology section of VINSEUM was created in 1959 following the acquisition by the Vilafranca City Council, a year earlier, of the collection started in 1957 by Pere Mestre Raventós, an agricultural expert by training and ornithologist by vocation. During the years that Mestre was responsible for the section, together with his collaborators, he managed to gather, study, and classify a vast natural heritage that they have bequeathed to society and which the museum preserves and makes available for consultation and study by specialists upon request. Thanks to the encyclopedic and thorough approach that made the classification of these collections possible, the museum can now accurately trace the natural history of our geographical area. On one hand, the ornithological collection provides a comprehensive map of the birdlife present in the Penedès, and includes 300 birds of more than a hundred different species, nearly 800 clutches of eggs, and 96 nests.