Red and Black Barcelona: Blood, Gunpowder and Resistance

Barcelona was not always the city of Gaudí and sun-drenched terraces. It was the world capital of anarchism. The city where more churches burned in a single day than anywhere else. The city where workers took control of factories, trams, and hospitals for weeks. The city where George Orwell arrived to write an article and ended up fighting in a trench on Las Ramblas. Between 1835 and 1939, Barcelona experienced more than fifteen insurrections, general strikes, and episodes of political violence than any other city in Western Europe. Historians called it "the city of bombs". The anarchists called it "their city". This tour goes to the places where all of that happened. The theater where a bomb exploded during the opera. The castle where the defeated were shot. The telephone exchange where the war began. The police station where dissidents were tortured. Some places have plaques. Many do not. But they are all still standing. Approximate audio duration: 38 minutes.

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Barcelona Roja y Negra: sangre, pólvora y resistencia

Barcelona no fue siempre la ciudad de Gaudí y las terrazas al sol. Fue la capital mundial del anarquismo. La ciudad donde más iglesias se quemaron en un solo día. La ciudad donde los trabajadores tomaron el control de las fábricas, los tranvías y los hospitales durante semanas. La ciudad donde George Orwell llegó para escribir un artículo y terminó combatiendo en una trinchera en las Ramblas. Entre 1835 y 1939, Barcelona vivió más de quince insurrecciones, huelgas generales y episodios de violencia política que cualquier otra ciudad de Europa occidental. Los historiadores la llamaron "la ciudad de las bombas". Los anarquistas la llamaron "su ciudad". Este recorrido va por los lugares donde ocurrió todo eso. El teatro donde explotó una bomba durante la ópera. El castillo donde fusilaron a los vencidos. La central telefónica donde empezó la guerra. La comisaría donde torturaron a los disidentes. Algunos lugares tienen placas. Muchos no. Pero todos siguen en pie. Duración aproximada de audio: 38 minutos.

Tour stops

12 stops · 17 minutes · 4.60 km on foot

The Bomb in the Box

On November 7, 1893, during a performance of William Tell at the Liceu, someone threw two bombs from the fifth floor into the stalls. One exploded. The other did not. Twenty people died. The anarchist who threw them was called Santiago Salvador. He was twenty-nine years old. When they arrested him, he said he had chosen the Liceu because it was "the temple of the bourgeoisie". He was executed by garrote vil in Barcelona's Modelo prison in 1894. The Liceu bombing was not an isolated case. Between 1890 and 1909, Barcelona was the world epicenter of "propaganda by the deed": the anarchist the…

The City They Erased

You were here already in the other tour. But now we come to tell the other part. In 1714, Philip V won the War of Succession. Barcelona fell on September 11, after a fourteen-month siege. That day more than five thousand people died defending the city. What came next was systematic retaliation. Philip V did not only demolish the Ribera neighborhood to build the military Ciudadela. He also abolished Catalan institutions by decree. The Decret de Nova Planta of 1716 eliminated the Generalitat, the Consell de Cent, and Catalan public law. It banned the use of Catalan in official documents. It w…

The Park That Was a Prison

This park is beautiful. And it has a history most people ignore. Philip V built the Ciudadela here between 1715 and 1718. A pentagonal military fortress specifically designed to control Barcelona from within. Its cannons pointed toward the city, not outward. It was not a fortress to defend against foreign enemies. It was a fortress to terrorize the people of Barcelona. For 150 years, the Ciudadela was synonymous with repression. Here the liberals were imprisoned during the reign of Ferdinand VII. Here the rebels of 1842 were executed. Here generations of Catalan political prisoners passed t…

El Raval: Factory of Fear

El Raval was Barcelona's most dangerous neighborhood. And also its most alive. In the 19th century, workers from the textile factories of the Eixample and Poble Sec lived crammed together here in El Raval. Narrow streets, inner courtyards without light, cesspits shared by fifty families. Infant mortality was the highest in Western Europe. And in that context the most radical workers' movement on the continent was born. Catalan anarchism did not emerge from theory. It emerged from hunger. From watching your children die of tuberculosis at three years old. From working twelve hours and not be…

The Week That Burned the City

The Tragic Week lasted from July 26 to August 2, 1909. It started here, on Las Ramblas and the streets of the center. The trigger was the call-up for the war in Morocco. The government was sending reservists — family men, workers — to die in the Rif. The sons of the rich could pay to be exempted. The women of the Poble Nou neighborhood stood their ground at the port and stopped the soldiers from embarking. The protest spread. There was a general strike. And then, what nobody expected: a week of spontaneous insurrection. Eighty-five religious buildings burned in three days. Convents, churche…

The Castle That Watches and Judges

From up here, all of Barcelona can be seen. And from up here, for centuries, Barcelona was controlled. Montjuïc Castle has existed since the 17th century. But its dark history begins in the 18th, when Philip V converted it into a military prison after the fall of Barcelona in 1714. Through these cells passed the leaders of every revolt, every strike, every insurrection in Barcelona for two centuries. General Prim was imprisoned here before his exile. The liberals of the 1843 revolution were executed here. And here Lluís Companys was shot on October 15, 1940. Companys was the president of …

The Square That Carries Orwell's Name

This square bears George Orwell's name. And it has surveillance cameras installed at every corner. The irony is not accidental. In Barcelona they know it. Orwell arrived in Barcelona in December 1936. He was thirty-three years old. He came to write an article about the war. When he saw what was here, he enlisted in the POUM, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, a non-Stalinist left-wing militia. He wrote in "Homage to Catalonia" that on arriving in Barcelona he believed he had found himself for the first time in his life in a city where the working class held power. Waiters did not ex…

The Telefónica: A War Within the War

The Telefónica building you can see there, on the corner of Plaza de Catalunya, was the epicenter of the war within the war. It was May 1937. The Civil War had been going on for ten months. In Barcelona, the two Republican factions — the anarchists of the CNT-FAI on one side, the Communists of the PSUC backed by Stalin on the other — had been building tension for months. On May 3rd, the Assault Guard tried to take control of the Telefónica building, which was in the hands of the anarchists. That was the spark. Within hours, barricades filled Las Ramblas. Each side controlled different build…

El Paral·lel: The Poor Man's Rambla

El Paral·lel was the poor man's Rambla. While Las Ramblas was the promenade of the bourgeoisie, this avenue — which follows the 41° 44' north parallel, hence the name — was for decades the heart of popular entertainment in Barcelona. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, El Paral·lel concentrated variety theaters, cabarets, café-concerts, circuses, and popular opera houses. Cuplés, zarzuelas, and vedettes performed here. It was the neighborhood of artists who did not make it to the Liceu but who filled the halls every night. And it was also the neighborhood of militancy. Most of the th…

The Attack Nobody Remembers

On May 31, 1906, King Alfonso XIII and his bride Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg were leaving their wedding at the church of Los Jerónimos in Madrid. A man threw a bouquet of flowers at the royal carriage as it passed. The bouquet concealed a bomb. Twenty-four people died. The royals survived. The anarchist who did it was called Mateu Morral. He was Catalan. He had worked as librarian at Ferrer Guardia's Escuela Moderna. Two years later, in 1908, the anarchist Joan Rull was executed at Montjuïc, accused of planting several bombs in Barcelona. The Rull case was one of the darkest of the era: …

Via Laietana 43: The House of Terror

This building is the Barcelona Superior Police Headquarters. And during Francoism, its basements were the most feared place of torture in Catalonia. The Barcelona equivalent of what the Puerta del Sol was in Madrid. Political detainees were brought here: students, trade unionists, PSUC militants, Comisiones Obreras activists, independence supporters. The Brigada Político-Social operated here for decades. Testimonies from survivors describe isolation cells, sleep deprivation, the "bathtub" — forcing the detainee's head underwater until near drowning — beatings. Historical figures of Catalan…

Fossar de les Moreres: No Traitors Here

This is the last place on the tour. And the first one in time. The Fossar de les Moreres — the Cemetery of the Mulberry Trees — is the medieval cemetery that stood here, beside the church of Santa Maria del Mar. And it was here that the defenders of Barcelona who died on September 11, 1714, were buried. There is an inscription carved in the brick wall. They are verses by the 19th-century poet Frederic Soler: "En el Fossar de les Moreres, no s'hi enterra cap traïdor". In the Cemetery of the Mulberry Trees, no traitor is buried. Because when the city's defenders lost and were offered the chan…

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Red and Black Barcelona: Blood, Gunpowder and Resistance audio tour free?

Yes, this tour is completely free. Download Trevurs on iOS or Android and access it instantly — no subscription, no ads during the tour.

How long does the Red and Black Barcelona: Blood, Gunpowder and Resistance tour take?

The tour takes approximately 17 minutes and covers 12 stops over 4.60 km on foot.

What languages is this audio guide available in?

This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.

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