Between 1975 and 1977, the Verges Manages replaced their painted cardboard helmets and breastplates with new equipment. The renewal required repairs, money and the involvement of many people. Crònica d’uns vestits, written by Llorenç Cansell and Jordi Roca in 2007, traces its main stages through the memories of two participants.
Girona, 1975: the contrast between the equipment
According to Cansell and Roca, the Manages attended the Girona gathering in 1975 marking the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Maniple de Manaies. The authors recall the contrast between other groups’ gleaming armour and the cardboard helmets and breastplates coated with metallic paint worn by the Verges participants. The gathering highlighted the need to renew the equipment.
Rain on Maundy Thursday in 1975 made the problem worse. The account explains that the cardboard became soaked and that some pieces fell apart as participants changed out of them. The authors place this need in a year when, according to their account, the Patronat had received no income.
The cardboard was still used in 1976
The renewal was not immediate. Ciso Mir repaired the cardboard equipment and the Manages used it again in 1976. This detail prevents the first use of the new equipment from being dated a year too early.
Oral memory provides a background to this craftwork. Aureli Serra mentions Ramon Marín, el Mut, when discussing cardboard helmets and breastplates. Maria Ruart i Ribas recalls an outing to Girona with modest equipment, but the dating of her memory does not allow it to be identified conclusively with the 1975 gathering.
Lluís Llach’s concert on 17 June 1976
A concert by Lluís Llach was organised to help pay for the renewal. Cansell and Roca describe the difficulties in obtaining government authorisation and place the permit’s arrival on the night of 16 June. The concert took place the following day, 17 June 1976.
The authors credit the concert with a net profit of 450,000 pesetas, which covered a substantial part of the cost of the new equipment. This figure comes from their retrospective account; it has not been checked here against an original accounts book.
The 1976 order and the first appearance in 1977
The same account places the order with Carmaniu, in Girona, in early September 1976: 70 complete sets at 8,000 pesetas each. Here too, the quantity and price are attributed to Cansell and Roca’s account, rather than presented as a transcription of a contract examined for this article.
The equipment was first worn on Maundy Thursday in 1977. When the authors published their account in 2007, they reported that it was still in use. That observation documents its continued use up to that point, but does not establish that every original piece remains in use today.
Costumes and armour: two separate renewals
In April 1976, Los Sitios already reported costumes made by women of Verges and owned by the Patronat. This report does not establish that the metal armour was first worn that year.
Distinguishing the two renewals helps explain the process: making costumes for the Procession and replacing the Manages’ equipment followed different timelines. The memory of the community effort is better preserved when we retain this distinction and the dates supported by the sources.
Sources and limits of the reconstruction
Main source: Llorenç Cansell and Jordi Roca, ‘Crònica d’uns vestits’, País Petit, July 2007, p. 33. This is a retrospective account by participants, rather than a contract or an accounting record.
Contemporary press: ‘La Passió de Verges, arte y tradición popular’, Los Sitios, 14 April 1976, p. 7; passage consulted through documentary indexing. Oral material: testimonies of Aureli Serra and Maria Ruart i Ribas, in the Memòria Viva documents.
