Few supporters’ clubs today bear the name of founder and five-time president Joan Gamper. One of them is in Amposta (Terres de l’Ebre). Founded in 1959, at the height of the Franco era and with Helenio Herrera as coach of the first football team, the Penya Barcelonista Joan Gamper d’Amposta is one of the pioneers founded outside the Barcelona region.
For many years, it brought together Barça fans from all over Terres de l’Ebre until, little by little, each town created its own supporters’ club. All the regions or territories have a parent penya from which all the others have been created, and Amposta represents this nerve centre of supporters’ club expansion throughout the Terres de l’Ebre, and even others in the north of Castellón that have always been linked to this territory.
Since its foundation, it has had seven presidents: Joan Curto, Angel Obiol, Ricard Rebull, Jordi Monllao, Dani Centelles, Miquel Àngel Beltran and Òscar Calvet. Despite going through very difficult times throughout its history, it is currently a very active penya, with more than 600 members who organise cultural and charity events every year. Trips to Barcelona on match days, offering a coach to all culers, has always been one of the historical characteristics of both PB Amposta and the other penyes that have been created over the years.
The town of Amposta
Amposta is the capital of the Montsià region and the second largest town in Les Terres de l’Ebre in terms of population. It is the largest municipality in the region and has two decentralised entities under its jurisdiction: Balada and Poble Nou del Delta. The main sector of the city’s economy is agriculture, especially rice cultivation. Currently, the industrial and tourism sectors have also become very important and are key pillars of the economy.
The city’s main attraction is its suspension bridge over the River Ebre, which began construction in 1915 and was completed in 1921. At the time, it was the second reinforced concrete suspension bridge in the world after the Brooklyn Bridge, which inspired its engineer, Jose Eugenio Ribera. The bridge was bombed by Italian fascist troops during the Spanish Civil War and broken in half on 10 March 1938.
The city’s main festivals are held around 15 August, and there is also a market festival in the square at the beginning of May, which recreates the city as it was at the end of the 19th century. Given its proximity to the Valencian Comunity, there is a great tradition of music bands that bring together many people of different ages from the town. The city has two high-quality, traditional music bands: Lira Ampostina (La Lira), founded in 1917, and Unión Filarmónica (La Fila), founded in 1918. During the main festival, it is traditional for these bands to parade through the streets of the city in the morning, playing their music.
Amposta stands out for being located between two large natural parks, the Delta de l’Ebre Natural Park and the Els Ports Natural Park. This entire area has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Another highlight is the beach in front of the Eucaliptus residential area, which has 4.5 km of fine, wide sand. As it is located in a large wetland area created by sediments from the Ebre River, there are many lagoons and marshes within the municipal boundaries, such as L’Encanyissada, La Tancada and Els Ullals de Baltasar, which are of great interest in terms of landscape and native fauna.
In terms of gastronomy, the ingredient par excellence is obviously rice, but other typical products of the Delta also stand out, such as eel in all its varieties, in juice, fried, chapadillo, smoked… Amposta has hotels, campsites and a wide variety of rural accommodation that can be found in the municipality, either in the middle of the rice fields, such as in Poble Nou del Delta, where there are a large number of country houses, or in all the other places in the extensive municipality.
