News

Seventy years back, but it seemed almost like yesterday

A tour that opened our eyes to the forces that explain Girona as it is today.Extract from an article by Joaquim Bohigas published in the newspaper Diari de Girona on 9 February.

A guided tour encouraging us to visualise three spots that were the scenes of repression during the Spanish Civil War in Girona: in connection with the commemoration of the end of that war, the City History Museum organised a guided tour yesterday, with Jaume Prat leading the hundred-strong party around the three chosen spots the Provincial Court, the prison (Seminary), and an air-raid shelter in the garden called Jardí d'Infància, where an air-raid siren sounded again specially for this occasion.
Before setting out to roam along certain streets in the old part of Girona, a film document by Antoni Varés on that period was shown in the premises of the History Museum. A particularly harsh reality appeared when an account was given of the trials run by the People's Tribunal of Girona (Republicans against Nationalists) and the extremely summary trials on the other side (Nationalists against Republicans). One of the high points of the tour came when its participants were led along the way that the condemned prisoners had trod decades before on their way to prison. Going down the steps of Pujada de Sant Martí arm in arm with someone else brought a taste of their last walk through the city before finding themselves staring death in the face.
A convincing mock air raid was next, in the now-reclaimed air-raid shelter in Jardí de la Infància, a place affording protection from the bombings and acting as the first line in the rear guard's passive defence