History
-
La Casa de la Misericòrdia de Barcelona
Founded in 1581, the Casa offered aid and shelter to the city’s poor and homeless population, which represented an important and growing problem for the urban center. Read more
-
A History of Easter Feasts and Why the English Breakfast Might Be Medieval
Lent is traditionally a time of giving up food, especially meat and dairy. Easter is, by contrast, a feast. Read more
-
Plaça del Rei, photo by Antonio Lajusticia Bueno courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Barcelona's Historic Places: Built from the Grave
Tombstones from the former Jewish cemetery on MontjuÏc were used to build this 16th-century palace in the Gothic Quarter. Read more
-
Spanish refugees at Le Perthus, France, in 1939. Keystone-France/Getty Images
Fleeing Franco: Spain's Civil War Refugees
An estimated 275,000 Spaniards went into exile during the Spanish Civil War. Many of them never returned. Read more
-
U.S. volunteers in Spain, spring 1938. New York University's Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.
Ukraine’s Foreign Fighters Have Little in Common with Those Who Signed up to Fight in the Spanish Civil War
If there is one way in which the Ukrainian analogy with Spain applies, it is the tragic way the country is being used as a proxy in a battle between the world’s great powers. Read more
-
Església de Sant Pere Nolasc. Photo by Vicente Zambrano González courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
The Bells of Barcelona
While other forms of marking time’s passage are now more common, the ringing of bells still has something to tell us. Read more
-
Students in class at the Institut de Cultura i Biblioteca Popular de la Dona.
After over 100 Years, “La Bonne” Is Still Fighting
La Biblioteca Popular de la Dona was founded in Barcelona in 1909 and was the first public library created exclusively for women in Europe. Read more
-
Saint Dominic presiding over an Auto-da-fe (detail) by Pedro Berruguete, cir. 1493-99. Image courtesy of the Prado Museum, Public Domain.
Extraordinarily, the Effects of the Spanish Inquisition Linger to This Day
From Imperial Rome to the Crusades, to modern North Korea or the treatment of Rohingya in Myanmar, religious persecution has been a tool of state control for millennia. Read more
-
Pau Casals between cir. 1915 to cir. 1920. Photo from the George Grantham Bain Collection, US Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Pau Casals: Musician, Activist, Humanist
Who was Pau Casals? There are auditoriums, festivals, grants, music schools—even a highway—named after him, yet depending on who you ask, they’ll talk to you more about his music or about his politics. Read more
-
Barcelona Bombings during the Spanish Civil War
This month marks the 85th anniversary since air raids started on Barcelona, and a new strategy of modern warfare was born Read more
