Virtual tours

Upcoming tours, 2022 (London time, 15e, 2hrs)

-Thurs 10  Feb at 1800: The International brigades: Origins, experiences, legacies,

–Thurs  17 Feb at 1800: George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia

–Thrus 24 Feb at 1800: Museum in a suitcase: the Spanish Civil War through 50+ original museum objects in our collection

–Thurs 3 March at 1800: The SCW and sport: The People’s Olympiad, football and boxing

–Thurs 10 March at 1800: – Life in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.

–Thurs 17 March at 1800: To be confirmed

–Thurs 24 March at 1800: –A tour of the Aragón front Revolution, battle sites, repression, art and Francist and democratic memorialisation: the Spanish Civil War from the high Pyrenees, Huesca, Monegros, Belchite and Teruel

–Thurs 31 March at 1800: –Gernika the atrocity, Guernica the painting

Practicalities

  • Booking: email info@spanishcivilwartours.com to book.
  • Guide: Nick Lloyd
  • Length: 2 hours
  • Cost: 15 euros (except for Iberian road trip and History of Barcelona – see above)
  • Interactive: ability to ask questions at frequent points during the talk.
  • Rarely seen photos and images
  • Use of original and unique objects from the war from the collection of the Walking Museum of the Spanish Civil War
  • Google street view incorporated
  • Private or school groups are also possible.
  • Recently featured in The i newspaper.

List of current virtual tours

(see end for more in preparation)

  1. –Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. Running
  2. -The International Brigades. Running
  3. -The Republican exile. Running
  4. -Working class history and Civil War in Poble-sec and Montjuïc. Running
  5. -Gernika the atrocity, Guernica the painting Running
  6. –Iberian Road trip (5 sessions – see below). Running
  7. Catalonia Road Trip (3 sessions). Running
  8. -Life in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. Running
  9. -Museum in a suitcase: the Spanish Civil War through 30 original museum objects in our collection. Running
  10. -People’s Olympiad and football during the Spanish Civil War. Running
  11. -Battle of the Ebro  Running
  12. A walk through the revolutionary and social history of El Raval   Running
  13.  A history of Barcelona from the Romans to today (3 sessions). Running
  14. Marina Ginestà, Ramon Mercader, Juan Guzmán: three crossed lives Running
  15. Photographers and photography in the Spanish Civil War Running
  16. The story of Francesc Boix  Running
  17. A tour along the Aragón front. Revolution, battle sites, repression, art and Francist and democratic memorialisation: the Spanish Civil War from the high Pyrenees, Huesca, Monegros, Belchite and Teruel 

Homage to Catalonia

See here

The International Brigades

The 1930s saw the spread of fascism and rightwing autoritraiansm across Europe. The Spanish Civil War represented a rallying cry for a generation that here the tide could perhaps be stopped. Over 35,000 volunteers from fifty-two countries came to defend the Spanish Republic against Franco and his allies. This virtual walk and talk takes you on a journey around the story of the International Brigades, visiting the bloody battlegrounds of Jarama, Belchite and the Ebro. We’ll talk about their cultural and political origins in the European diaspora, and specifically the July 1936 People’s Olympiad in Barcelona. We’ll discuss how although their motivations may well have been complex, the overarching reason for their coming to fight for the Spanish Republic was anti-fascism. After Spain, those from Continental Europe faced an often grim fate in a universe of camps, while others played a very significant role in the partisan resistance movements. While British volunteers tended to be welcomed as heroes, American and Canadians faced the anti-communist backlash from their states. Conversely, in Eastern Europe many attained key roles in the new Stalinist states, above all in the GDR. These different forms of treatment has meant the legacy of the IBs varies significantly from country to country.

The Republican exile

This tour takes you on the journeys made by those who fled into exile from Franco’s Spain. With the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, some 500,000 defeated Spanish and Catalan Republicans fled across the border. We will follow the mountains roads and paths trying to recreate the experiences of these defeated men, women and children. On arrival in what was still democratic France, the French government treated these people worse than animals herding them into makeshift camps particularly on the beaches near Perpignan. As the months wore on many were released to work or to return to a very uncertain future in Spain. Some of the more fortunate managed to get passage to Latin America, where they had a significant cultural impact, particularly in Mexico. Tragically, others were swept up when the Nazis invaded France, who deported some 10,000 Republicans, above all to the hell of Mauthassen in Austria,  Those who weren’t captured formed together with French and foreign International Brigader veterans the initial backbone of the French resistance. There were other journeys into exile: 4000 Basque children were sent to the UK in the summer of 1937, while other Republican children were sent to the USSR.

Iberian Road Trip

See here

Working class history and Civil War in Poble-sec and Montjuïc

This tour takes you on a journey around Barcelona in the Civil War and its working class history through my own neighborhood of Poble-sec and Montjuïc hill. In Poble-sec itself we’ll cover aspects such as the bombing of the city, anarchist cinema, collectisations, the 1919 so-called “Canadian” strike – one of biggest in European history: We’ll then take a hike up to the castle to learn about its dark history including the execution of Catalan president Lluís Companys. We’ll finish on the other side of Montjuïc at the Fossar de la Pedrera, where more than 1700 defeated Republicans and anarchists were buried after being shot by the Franco regime in Barcelona, today memorialised as arguably the most remarkable space of historical memory in Spain. I’ve been doing monthly tours here in Catalan for the last six years for Cementiris de Barcelona. I’d say that on about a third of the tours there’s been someone with a relative buried here, on two occasions a father. 

Franco’s Spain: Victors and Vanquished

This lecture and tour looks at how the Franco regime cleaved the population of Spain between victors and defeated. Although the war officially ended on 1 April 1939, a state of war continued officially until 1948 and in practice for many years after. While those with close connections to the regime enjoyed the benefits of unbridled power, clientelism and corruption, those who lost the war faced execution, torture and impisonment, swept up in what has been termed “the prison universe of Francosim”, their families marked out as being “scum” and “barbarians” for many years to come. We’ll look at the different groups that made up the regime and the resistance to it, and also discuss how the regime evolved politically and above all economically over the decades. The last part of the session includes a virtual tour of the Valley of the Fallen, Franco’s memorial grave until October 2020 and the impact of Francoism on today’s Spain.

History of Barcelona

 A journey around the history of Barcelona from its Roman foundations to the present day (Jewish, medieval, Bourbon repression, the tensions of industrialism, modernisme, revolutionary Barcelona and the war, Francoism, contemporary city). 3 sessions 40e.

Recorded versions

For those who prefer to enjoy things in their own time, we’ll be starting to upload 2h recorded versions in the near future.

In preparation

  1. Andalusian Road Trip
  2. Music and songs and the Spanish Civil War
  3. The USSR and the Spanish Civil war
  4. Ernst Hemingway and Martha Gelhorn in Spain
  5. Spanish food tour
  6. “The Nationalists”: the different factions of the rebels and Franco regime
  7. The landscape of Francoism
  8. Picasso’s Spain
  9. Aviation in the Spanish Civil War
  10. -Photographers and photography in the Spanish Civil War
  11. -Revolution and repression along Barceelona’s seafront 
  12. -Foreign military aid (Nazi, Italian Soviet, Mexican) durint the Spanish Civil War
  13. The wildlife of Barcelona
  14. -Political humanitarian aid to the Republic from around the world and medical services
  15. –A walk around Barcelona’s wild and industrial edges 
  16. -The Spanish Civil War through a walk from Plaça Catalunya down to the Ramblas to the sea 
  17. –The Spanish Civil War through a walk through Barcelona’s Gothic quarter 
  18. -A tour of the Catalan-French border, war, exile and art
  19. In the footsteps of Laurie  Lee
  20. Bears, Iberian lynx and wolves
  21. -Women in the Spanish Civil War (Catherine, next year)
  22. -A history of Anarchist Barcelona(Catherine, next year)  
  23. -Artistic visions of the Spanish Civil War (Catherine, next year)