Democratic Memory

Barcelona became the capital of three governments in November 1937 (Catalan, Basque and Spanish) and was the a military target in the context of important strategic offensives, such as the Battle of Teruel, the Extremadura front and the renewed resistance from Madrid. The city had already suffered its first aerial bombings on 16 March of that year, an offensive that signalled the start of a campaign of attacks that Barcelona would have to endure and which also included night-time bombings, such as the attack on 29 May, which left 64 people dead and 157 wounded.

Both the night-time and daytime bombings intensified from the end of 1937 to the end of 1938. Tasked with facilitating the Francoist offensive, the Italian air force bombed the city in January 1938: Poblenou, Barceloneta, Sant Andreu, Can Tunis, El Gòtic, El Raval, Eixample and Guinardó were the neighbourhoods worst hit; the port was very badly damaged and a group of children were massacred on the 30th of that month in the chapel-holding basement of the Sant Felip Neri school, where many child refugees from other parts of Spain had been hiding, and which collapsed under the effects of the bombs.

But it was between 16 and 18 March that an indiscriminate attack occurred, during which the Italian air force tried out a new technique, saturation bombing, which consisted of a continuous launch of free-falling bombs combined with incendiary bombs and whose sole purpose was to devastate the territory and terrorise the population.

The first and last alarms were sounded at 10.08 pm on 16 March and at 3.19 pm on 18 March respectively. There were a total of 40 hours and 55 minutes of aerial incursions over the city with Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM81 Pipistrello, bombardamento notturno and SM79 Sparviero, bombardamento veloce planes that dropped 44 tonnes of bombs from a low height (under 6,000 metres).

These attacks hit 273 buildings, of which 76 were totally destroyed and 96 partially destroyed.  As for victims, there were no fewer than 551 fatalities and 1,151 wounded, though the figures differ according to source. These are the figures provided by the Barcelona Local Passive Defence Board, whose fatalities fail to include the number of deaths that occurred after the bombings and are close to the numbers given by Hospital Clínic and Hospital General at 7.13 pm on 18 March (546 fatalities and 993 wounded). Two days later, La Vanguardia recorded 670 fatalities and 1,200 wounded, whereas the most recent studies offer roughly a thousand fatalities and between 1,500 and 2,000 wounded.

Video-mapping, light and sound on the facade of the Barcelona City Hall

SANT JAUME SQUARE

Facade of the City Hall

16 MARCH

From 8.15 pm to 10 pm

17 and 18 MARCH

From 7.30 pm to 9 pm

Duration: 10 minutes. Repeated every 15 minutes

This is an artistic installation in the form of a video mapping in 3D with son et lumière, designed by Xavi Bové and curated by Daniela Aronica, the director of the Centro di Studi sul Cinema Italiano (CSCI). This is a tree that emerges from the ground and which is projected onto Barcelona’s sky, while unamplified voices provide a context for the show, which is 10 minutes long and can be seen at several daily screenings on 16, 17 and 18 March.

Symbolising life and humanity, the person responsible for it describes it as a very basic and conceptual piece that sketches out a large tree based on short and interrupted outlines — in reference to the discontinuous bombing of the city ordered by Mussolini— which are associated with the voices of women, men and children.  The image, which is projected from the ground to the sky as an allegory of peace, is not intended to be an image of pain and destruction but rather a call for peace and freedom, and to looking up to the sky without fear.

New memorial signs in several locations in the city

To mark the commemoration, signs will be put up in public areas that had borne the brunt of the bombings and there will be a campaign to highlight the roles of the people who made key decisions in defending the city and building air-raid shelters.

A lectern has already been put up on La Barceloneta beach, on the site where the El Mar School once stood, before its destruction from the bombings of 7 January 1938. Another one is now going to be put up as well, where the Sant Felip Neri children’s massacre took place.

As for people, plaques are expected to be put up to mark where Ramon Perera Comorera and Manuel Muñoz Díez were born. The former was the adviser for and driving force behind the air-raid shelter system from February 1938. He designed shelters, assessed their resistance and incorporated new measures to improve their efficiency.

Manuel Muñoz, for his part, was the creator of the air-raid shelter system, a Barcelona City Councillor and the man and person ultimately responsible for the Barcelona Local Passive Defence Board. Besides recruiting and organising civilians for building shelters, cleaning and clearing-up, he encouraged the creation of shelters on the initiative of the public and coordinated these with the ones being established on the initiative of the municipality.

The MUHBA’s programme of activities

The Museu d’Història de Barcelona (MUHBA) is offering an outstanding programme of activities on the Spanish Civil War and the aerial bombings. The activities are designed for everyone and include guided tours, visits to Gràcia’s air-raid shelters and Shelter 307, in Poble-sec, as well as theatre performances and school trips to the El Turó de la Rovira anti-aircraft batteries and Shelter 307.

There is also a series of activities for schools to accompany the corresponding educational material:

A pic i pala! [by shovel and spade!]

A visit to Shelter 307, built by the neighbourhood’s residents acting in solidarity. Visitors will be told how the population got involved and organised themselves to survive the bombings.

Shelter 307: solidarity for survival

A visit to understand how the war and the bombings affected the city and made it even more important for local residents to organise themselves and for institutions to work to improve the chances of survival in the face of the aerial terror.

Civil-war and postwar Barcelona. Views from the Turó de la Rovira

A natural 360º viewpoint for interpreting the metropolitan panorama and learning more about the organisation of the anti-aircraft defence during the Spanish Civil War and the later explosion of shanty towns.

Barcelona under the bombs

These are visits combined with trips. Visits will be made to Shelter 307 and Turó de la Rovira, two decisive heritage sites for understanding the passive and active defences for protecting Barcelona against the aerial bombings and a trip by coach to areas in the city affected by the bombings.

The offerings already available for the general public will be boosted with extra options.

Shelter 307. Guided tours

A guided tour to one of the best examples of shelters built in Barcelona which is also an authentic memorial to the struggle for survival and to the disaster of wars.

Vedettes and conscripts. El Paral·lel and the Poble-sec neighbourhood during the Spanish Civil War

A tour combined with a visit to Shelter 307 which puts it in its context — the Poble-sec neighbourhood during the Civil War — and highlights its relationship with the world of theatre and popular culture in Paral·lel.

Civil-war and postwar Barcelona. Views from the Turó de la Rovira

A guided tour to the Turó de la Rovira anti-aircraft battery, 262 metres above sea level and with a 360º view that made it a natural and privileged viewpoint and strategic position for defending Barcelona during the Civil War.

Defending the modern city

A two-hour guided tour to the Turó de la Rovira anti-aircraft battery and shanty town for a closer look at the active defence plan developed by the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War and the later explosion of shanty towns in Barcelona.

The city’s active and passive defences. Shelter 307 and the anti-aircraft batteries at Turó de la Rovira

A combined visit to Shelter 307 and Turó de la Rovira and urban coach trip to understand the response of the population, municipal institutions and heads of the Republic armed forces to the aerial terror that ravaged the city with nearly two hundred bombings.

For further information, visit the MUHBA’s website

Remembering the victims of the Civil War aerial bombings

Talk by historians Bernat Pizà and Manel Aisa, on Saturday, March 17 at 12 pm, in Joan Amades Square. Pizà will talk about “The bombings and air defense” and Aisa will talk about “The bombings and passive defense. The shelters “.  The activity recalls the bomb that fell in Carme street with Egipciaques street on March 17, 1938.

For further information visit the Ciutat Vella District website (spanish version)

An exhibition that focuses on the lives of children who witnessed the aerial attacks and how they represented them in drawings made at school, in shelters and in camps. It also shows the impact that the events left on several artists in their adult life and the marks the attacks had made on urban spaces. Curated by the historian Jordi Guixé, the exhibition will be open to the public at the Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria from September 26.

For the purposes of making it more accessible to children, it will offer an educational pack for schools along with proposals for recovering the memory of these attacks and the effects they had on the city’s population. These materials will be available through the Educational Resources Centre, for the 2018-2019 school year.

Published by the Carles Pi i Sunyer Foundation, this volume by Mireia Capdevila and Laia Arañó was presented in January, 2019. It includes an exhaustive list of the bombings’ victims and full details of the destruction caused: sites that bore the brunt of the impact, houses and facilities destroyed, the destruction of assets in each case and the number of people affected.

The volume comes with images documenting the destruction of the city’s structures and collaborative contributions from specialists providing the context behind the bombings as well as the defensive strategies against, causes and consequences of the attacks.

On the other hand, Barcelona City Council’s Archaeological Service has an inventory study project under way on the more than 1,300 anti-aircraft shelters located in Barcelona, which is to be used for disseminating this important historical asset of the city.

The urban history guide entitled Defensa 1936-39/BCN, by Ramon Arnabat, David Gesalí and David Íñiguez and published by MUHBA is being re-published. It explains how the city was organised for its defence against air attacks by the Italian and German air forces, which supported the Francoist rebels against the Spanish Republic. It contains information on the city’s passive and active defences and shelters and the role played by Montjuïc Castle and the Turó de la Rovira battery, among other things.

The urban history guides are itinerary proposals published by MUHBA which enable their readers to discover the city’s various historical periods. Presented in a fold-out format, they offer information on the itinerary’s subject matter and period and a map with the location of the sites to visit, as well as pictures, photos and different graphics.

Link to the Defensa 1936-39/BCN urban history guide on the Collective Catalogue of Barcelona City Council’s libraries