Take a Spanish Civil War Tour
Nick Lloyd's tours are a journey inside Barcelona’s wartime struggles and tragedies.
The Spanish Civil War and Franco’s devastating reign over the city remain the seminal, cataclysmic events that shaped the modern Barcelona. Little known to many outside Spain — especially in the U.S. — the struggle against fascism in Barcelona degenerated into strife and nightmare, creating a lasting symbol of the heartbreak and loss that continue to plague the city’s complicated psyche.
Nick Lloyd’s tours are well known in Barcelona as a starting point for any discussion of the war. Nick is the author of “Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War,” as well as the recently released, “Travels Through the Spanish Civil War” (links below). He has a passion for bringing the stories of the war to life and humanizing the horrible events that tore apart families and neighborhoods for generations.
The Gothic Quarter tour is a stroll through the chaos, terror and tragedies of the war. The stories and details will resonate whether you are an expert on the war or a neophyte. Many sites vividly remain, such as the pockmarked stones walls of the church of Sant Felip Neri, where in Jan. 1938 bombs from Italian planes killed 42 people, primarily children huddled in a shelter. Barcelona was one of the first major cities to face systematic bombardment from the sky, and the scars are found throughout the old city.
On the tour, you will also learn about the mélange of Stalinists, Trotskyites, anarchists and Catalan nationalists that fought for control of the city during the war. There was nothing simple or clean about the anti-fascist cause in Barcelona. Savage and bloody fighting broke out between the various groups. Author George Orwell was famously swept up in events, which he chronicled in his book “Homage to Catalonia.” The tour takes you to Orwell’s wartime haunts, where he struggled to stay alive amid the battles between the city’s warring factions.
The tour takes four hours and usually starts from Placa Catalunya. Tours are led in English, but Nick speaks Spanish, as well. It’s best to book early, spots fill up.
Here’s the link to the Spanish Civil War Tour site for more info.
And here is a link for Nick’s new book:
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