Deltebre, the most extensive municipality in the Delta de l'Ebre (Ebro River Delta), was founded in 1977 with the separation of two neighbourhoods in Tortosa: La Cava and Jesús i Maria. Despite its agricultural past associated with rice paddies, the opening of the Delta de l'Ebre Nature Park (1983) made tourism more important within its economy.

History

The priest Antoni Batlle1 was an educator who held a doctorate in philosophy and in theology and was a teacher at the Escola del Mar. His connection with the name of the hostel comes from his prominent role in the Minyons de Muntanya scouting group, founded by Josep Maria Batista i Roca. In fact, Father Antoni Batlle joined it the year it was founded (1927), and three years later, he created the Agrupament Mare de Déu de Montserrat chapter (1930). On 18 July 1936, the outbreak of the Civil War caught him off-guard leading a group of scouts on a climb of the Pica d'Estats mountain. In 1945, when he came back from exile, he relaunched the activities of the Minyons Escoltes i Guies de Sant Jordi underground, which helped to consolidate scouting in Catalonia.

But the work of the Sitges-born Father Antoni Batlle went beyond Catholic groups, given that the secular groups that had existed prior to the war were also part of the movement he led.

The modern building which dates from the late 1970s and is today the Mossèn Antoni Batlle Youth Hostel was designed to be the social venue for sports facilities. In 1977, the members of the La Cava tennis club decided to create a building to be used as their social headquarters. In fact, the members themselves literally constructed the building, given that everyone who wanted to join the club could do so in exchange for sweat equity.

Therefore, the walls around the hostel today were built by the citizens of Deltebre following the design by the architect Xavier Martí. But before it started operating, construction was halted and the plans for the club never materialised. In the late 1980s, after being left vacant, the Government of Catalonia decided to make it into a youth hostel. The building was designed by Josep Lluís Millan i Bel. The hostel opened in 1988 with the name of Mossèn Antoni Batlle, dovetailing with the centennial of his birth.

Architecture

It is a modern building which stands out for the use of reinforced concrete with no decorations and a glass-enclosed central area that houses the bathrooms. This curious construction makes the first floor a highly functional space, given that all the rooms have direct entrances.

Its design is characterised by the use of white and yellow, small windows on the ground floor and wooden frames, in addition to a large balcony running around the entire first floor which leads into all the rooms (unlike the initial design, which, as a tennis club's social headquarters, had dark tones, large windows and aluminium cladding). However, the most unique feature of the hostel is the vaulted ceiling painted by a town resident, which depicts the landscape, flora and fauna of the Delta de l'Ebre.

In addition to the paintings, another hallmark of the hostel is the fact that each room and floor is named after the local toponyms, such as Buda Island and L'Encanyissada.

2 Social headquarters of the Agrupament Escolta scouts.