Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Telefónica building & Plaça de Catalunya (May Days 1937)
Barcelona · City site
The story
On 3 May 1937 Catalan police under Eusebio Rodríguez Salas tried to take the Telefónica exchange from the CNT workers' committee that had run it since July 1936. The anarchists opened fire, and within hours barricades went up across Barcelona. The CNT and POUM faced the Generalitat, the PSUC communists and the Republican government forces in the 'May Days'. The PSUC headquarters were at the Hotel Colón across the square. After a ceasefire and the arrival of Assault Guards from Valencia, the government took control of public order in Catalonia. The events led to the suppression of the POUM and the kidnapping and murder of Andreu Nin.
What you can see today
The Telefónica building (1926–28) still faces the square, though its dome was removed in 1949; the Hotel Colón stood on the Passeig de Gràcia corner and was later replaced.
Plan your visit
Free, always visible; combine with the Poliorama and Rambla stop (5 minutes' walk).
Sources
- poblesdecatalunya.cat/element.php?e=15071
- poblesdecatalunya.cat/element.php?e=15071
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Days
Nearby sites
- Teatre Poliorama, La Rambla (Orwell's rooftop) · under 1 km
- Plaça de Sant Felip Neri (bombing of 30 January 1938) · under 1 km
- Barcelona Cathedral – the religious persecution of 1936 · under 1 km
- Refugi 307, Poble-sec (MUHBA) · 2 km
- Castell de Montjuïc · 3 km
- Turó de la Rovira anti-aircraft battery (Bunkers del Carmel) · 4 km
All 158 sites in Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 →
The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The battlefields, trenches, ruined villages, shelters, museums and memorials of the Spanish Civil War across the whole of Spain, told fairly from both sides.
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