In July 1909 the government sent thousands of reservists to Morocco, many of them married with children, while those who could pay 1,500 pesetas bought their way out of the front. Barcelona answered with a general strike that within hours became a revolt: barricades, stopped trams and some eighty religious buildings in flames. Twelve stops between the quay where the soldiers sailed, the statue of the shipowner that is no longer there, the headquarters that declared martial law, Ferrer i Guàrdia's secular school, the square where the strike began, the convent of the exhumed nuns, the first church set alight, the avenue of theatres and radicals, the market of the working-class districts, the prison where Ferrer was tried, the moat where he was shot and the grave he shares with two anarchists. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
▸ Ver en español
Barcelona 1909: la semana en que los pobres se negaron a ir a la guerra
En julio de 1909, el gobierno mandó a Marruecos a miles de reservistas, muchos casados y con hijos, mientras los que podían pagar 1.500 pesetas se libraban del frente. Barcelona respondió con una huelga general que en pocas horas se volvió revuelta: barricadas, tranvías parados y unos ochenta edificios religiosos en llamas. Doce paradas entre el muelle de donde partían los soldados, la estatua del naviero que ya no está, el cuartel que declaró el estado de guerra, la escuela laica de Ferrer i Guàrdia, la plaza donde empezó la huelga, el convento de las monjas desenterradas, la primera iglesia incendiada, la avenida de los teatros y los radicales, el mercado de los barrios obreros, la cárcel donde se juzgó a Ferrer, el foso donde lo fusilaron y la tumba que comparte con dos anarquistas. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 13.98 km on foot (~3 h 30 min walking) · about 4 h in total
You are at the foot of the Columbus column, facing the harbour. Today there are yachts, gulls and tourists. On 18 July 1909 this quay was full of soldiers about to sail for Morocco.
They were not professional soldiers. They were reservists: men who had already done their military service and gone back to ordinary life. Many were married, had children and were the only wage in the household.
The war began over some mines. On 9 July, Spanish workers building a mining railway near Melilla were attacked by Rif tribesmen. Antonio Maura's government decided to send reinforcements, and the war mini…
2
The Shipowner's Square
You are in Antonio López square, beside the great Post Office building. For more than a century a bronze statue stood in the centre. In 2018 the City Council removed it.
Antonio López was the first Marquis of Comillas. He made his fortune in Cuba, partly through the slave trade, and founded the Compañía Trasatlántica, the great Spanish shipping line of its day.
In 1909 the company was run by his son, Claudio López Bru, the second marquis. He was one of the richest and most devoutly Catholic men in the country. It was Trasatlántica ships that carried the reservists to Melilla.
To many worker…
3
The Headquarters That Declared War on the City
You are on Passeig de Colom, facing the Capitanía General building. It was once a convent, then the seat of military power in Catalonia. From here the city was governed when the civil authorities lost control.
On Monday 26 July 1909 the general strike began. That same afternoon the captain general, Luis de Santiago, declared martial law. From that moment Barcelona was in the hands of the army.
The civil governor, Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo, disagreed with this approach and resigned. The interior minister, Juan de la Cierva, had ordered a hard line from Madrid.
Communications with the rest of …
4
The Strike No One Could Lead
You are in Plaça de Catalunya, the great junction between the old city and the Eixample. In 1909 it was not yet the orderly square you see today. But half of Barcelona already passed through it.
The strike of Monday 26 July was called by a committee of anarchists, socialists and trade unionists from Solidaridad Obrera, the federation founded in 1907. Among them was the socialist Antoni Fabra i Ribas. They wanted a one-day protest against the war.
That morning the factories closed and pickets toured the city calling for everything to stop. The trams, symbol of the modern city, were halted, an…
5
The School Without a Catechism
You are on Carrer de Bailèn, in the heart of the Eixample. From 1901 this street was home to the Modern School, founded by the educator Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. The original building is gone, but his name is still tied to this neighbourhood.
Ferrer was born in 1859 in Alella, near Barcelona. A republican and freethinker, he spent years in exile in Paris. An inheritance from a former pupil allowed him to open his own school.
The Modern School was secular, co-educational and had no prizes or punishments. Boys and girls from different social classes studied together, and religion was not taug…
6
The Exhumed Nuns
You are in the heart of the Raval, near the parish church of the Carme. In 1909 this was one of the poorest and most crowded districts in Europe. Narrow streets, workshops, textile mills and convents, many convents.
The convent of the Hieronymite nuns, an enclosed order, stood here. On Tuesday 27 July the rioters set it on fire. The building, with its Renaissance cloister and the works of art it held, was completely destroyed.
What happened next became one of the most shocking images of the week. In several convents, including this one, the crypts were opened and the mummified bodies of nuns…
7
The First Church in Flames
You are in front of Sant Pau del Camp, the oldest church in Barcelona still standing. It is Romanesque, built of thick stone, with a small cloister of lobed arches. Its name recalls that when it was built it stood in the fields, outside the walls.
It was the first church to burn in the Tragic Week. After the first day of fighting, the attacks on religious buildings began here. Over the following days the fire spread across the whole city.
The toll was enormous. Some eighty religious buildings were burned or destroyed, around half of those in Barcelona. Not all were convents: there were churc…
8
The Avenue of Theatres and Barricades
You are on Avinguda del Paral·lel, facing the outline of El Molino. In the early twentieth century this was Barcelona's street of popular entertainment: theatres, singing cafés, music halls and fairground booths.
It was also a border. On one side, the Raval. On the other, Poble Sec, climbing the slope of Montjuïc, full of workers and families newly arrived from other parts of Spain.
Alejandro Lerroux's Radical Party was very strong on the Paral·lel and around it. Its most hot-headed followers called themselves the Young Barbarians. Lerroux himself, however, was travelling abroad when the rev…
9
The Market of the Working-Class Districts
You are in front of the Sant Antoni Market, a great cross of iron and glass opened in 1882. It was designed by the architect Antoni Rovira i Trias. After almost a decade of works, it reopened, restored, in 2018.
In 1909 this market fed the districts surrounding the old city. This is where the women of working-class families did their shopping, the same women who that week were left without their reservist husbands, brothers or sons.
Women played a very visible role in the Tragic Week. They were at the protests against the embarkation, on the strike pickets and also in front of the burning co…
10
The Prison Where Ferrer Was Tried
You are in front of the walls of the old Modelo Prison, on Carrer d'Entença. It opened in 1904 with a star-shaped design: several wings radiating from a centre, from which a few guards could watch everything. It closed in 2017.
In August 1909 the prison filled up. Around two thousand people were prosecuted for the revolt. There were deportations, closures of secular schools and workers' centres, and hundreds of sentences.
Ferrer i Guàrdia was not in Barcelona for most of the week. He was arrested at the end of August near Alella, his home town. He was charged with being the author and leader…
11
The Moat of Santa Amàlia
You are at Montjuïc Castle, on the mountain overlooking the port. For centuries this fortress kept watch over Barcelona more than over the sea. Its guns were turned on the city itself more than once.
The castle already had a dark reputation among workers. After the bomb at the Corpus Christi procession in 1896, hundreds of anarchists and suspects were locked up here. Reports of torture spread across Europe.
After the Tragic Week there were five executions. The first four were Josep Miquel Baró, Antonio Malet, Eugenio del Hoyo and Ramón Clemente García. The fifth, and most famous, was Ferrer …
12
Three Graves Side by Side
You are in Montjuïc Cemetery, on the slope that faces the sea and the industrial port. Among the mausoleums of wealthy families and stacked niches, there is a corner visited above all by anarchists and freethinkers.
Three graves lie there, side by side. That of Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. And those of Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso, two anarchist leaders who died in 1936, in the first months of the Civil War.
In his will Ferrer asked that no monuments be made to him. His followers partly respected the wish: the grave is simple. But it almost always has flowers, red and black flags …
How long does the "Barcelona 1909: the Week the Poor Refused to Go to War" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 13.98 km walking route (~3 h 30 min on foot). Plan roughly 4 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Reservists' Quay" (coordinates 41.37585, 2.1778). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
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.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Barcelona and pick "Barcelona 1909: the Week the Poor Refused to Go to War". No account required to start.
