The presentation of the book Barcelona, ciutat roja. Topografia de la revolució del 1936 [Red Barcelona. Topography of the 1936 Revolution], by historian Manuel Vicente Izquierdo, took place yesterday at the Born – Museu d’Història de Barcelona in the form of a dialogue between the author himself and fellow historian David Ballester. The event was part of the municipal programme Primavera Republicana [Republican Spring], as noted by Carlos García Hermosilla, director of the Barcelona History Museum.

Carlos García Hermosilla underlined the importance of works such as this one in “strengthening historical memory through rigorous research and accessible dissemination”, emphasising the fact that the book offers a ‘topographical’ and accurate look at a city rocked to the core by the revolution of 1936.

The architecture of the revolution: expropriate to transform

The book covers 543 documented cases of expropriation in Barcelona in the first months of the Spanish Civil War. “It was an expropriatory revolution”, said the author of the book, who reminds us that “the bourgeoisie disappeared from the city almost overnight”. According to the author, 90% of these expropriations were carried out by communists and anarchists, primarily in neighbourhoods such as Eixample, Sant Gervasi and Ciutat Vella.

The PSUC, the UGT and the Joventuts Comunistes took over key buildings such as La Pedrera, which became the headquarters of the PSUC executive committee, and the Círculo Ecuestre, transformed into the Casal Marx. Meanwhile, the CNT transformed the headquarters of the Foment del Treball into the Casa CNT, a symbol of the rise of the proletariat.

The uses of spaces: from the bourgeoisie to the people

The expropriations were not merely symbolic or strategic in nature, they also had a practical purpose. Many of these buildings were converted into community spaces: nurseries, hospitals, schools and housing. “The city was physically ‘socialised'”, said Izquierdo, ‘even urban street names were changed: Via Laietana became Bonaventura Durruti and C/. Carme became C/. Kropotkin”.

A memory reconstructed and erased

In one of the most moving parts of the discussion, Izquierdo explained how, after 1939, the Franco regime systematically set about erasing every trace of the revolution: “The buildings were returned to their former owners, or became offices of the fascist political organisation Falange. Revolutionary street names disappeared, and Republican monuments were destroyed or replaced”.

Barcelona, ciutat roja ends with the chapter La nova normalitat [The New Normal], which explains the process of reversal and repression that culminated in the systematic seizure of Republican heritage, and the repression of former combatants and trade unionists.

David Ballester pointed out that the book not only provides facts, it also “refocuses our attention on a Barcelona that has disappeared, as seen through the eyes of those who knew it first-hand, such as George Orwell and Aurora Bertrana”.

A map so as not to forget

In addition to the historical narrative, Barcelona, ciutat roja includes four essential appendices: a map of the streets that bore the names of anti-fascist victims, a full list of the 543 expropriation files, a recommended route taking in the buildings that were expropriated, and brief biographies of fifty of the dispossessed owners.

“The book is also a tool for local residents”, said Izquierdo, “an open door that allows us to reconstruct the urban memory of a revolution that still lives on, in silence, within the city walls”. David Ballester called it a remarkable and necessary contribution, one that pulls aside “a curtain, revealing a landscape not previously explored” in the historiography of the Civil War with “admirable rigour”.

Barcelona, ciutat roja can be downloaded free of charge from the Barcelona Llibres website.