Marià Lorca i Bard has died at the end of March, former mayor of Figueres, food sector businessman and former deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia. Born in Navata in 1938, Lorca was one of the political figures most linked to the institutional life of the capital of Alt Empordà during the eighties and nineties.
He was mayor of Figueres between 1983 and 1995, a period in which he consolidated his prominence in local and regional politics. Before, in 1979, he joined Centristes de Catalunya, a party with which he was elected councilor in Figueres and deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia in the first legislature. Later he headed the CiU list in the city.
Political trajectory in Figueres and Alt Empordà
In addition to his time at the head of the City Council, Marià Lorca was also a provincial deputy and first president of the Consell Comarcal de l"Alt Empordà. His institutional career placed him in some of the main political decision-making spaces of the territory in the first years of the deployment of the Catalan administration after the democratic recovery.
His public profile combined political activity with business, linked to the food sector, and with a long involvement in social and cultural entities of Figueres and its surroundings.
Its bond with Dalí and the founding of the artist's legacy
The biography disseminated by Amics dels Museus Dalí places Marià Lorca as first vice-president of the Dalí Foundation for twelve years. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation recalls that the entity was created on December 23, 1983 by express will of the artist, with the mission of preserving, disseminating, and protecting his work and his legacy.
At the presentation of the book Els últims secrets de Dalí, built from conversations with Marià Lorca, he is attributed a role closely linked to the decisions made regarding the painter in Figueres. That account maintains that he positioned himself unconditionally by Dalí's side and that he opposed the change of name of the city's Dalí square.
In that same reconstruction, he is also attributed with having supported the acquisition of the current Galatea Tower, having promoted the creation of the private Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, and having facilitated the transfer of Salvador Dalí's residence from Púbol to Figueres in the last years of the artist's life.
Social presence beyond politics
In his most recent stage, Lorca also maintained an active presence in the social sphere. He presided over Càritas Figueres between 2014 and 2020, a responsibility from which he remained linked to the city after his withdrawal from the political frontline.
With his death, a figure closely linked to the recent history of Figueres, to the institutional development of Alt Empordà, and to some of the episodes that marked the relationship between the city and the legacy of Salvador Dalí disappears.