Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GEORGE ORWELL IN BARCELONA
Barcelona is a town with a long history of street-fighting.
Homage to Catalonia, 1938
When he first arrived in Barcelona in December 1936,
George Orwell
was much taken
withtheegalitarianspiritheencountered,asloudspeakersontheRamblasbellowedrevolu-
tionarysongs,caféwaitersrefusedtips,brothelswerecollectivizedandbuildingsdrapedin
anarchist flags. After serving as a militiaman on the Aragónese front, Orwell returned on
leavetoBarcelonainApril1937tofindthateverythinghadchanged.Notonlyhadthecity
lost its revolutionary zeal, but the various leftist parties fighting for the Republican cause
haddescendedintoa“miserableinternecinescrap”.Fromthe
HotelContinental
(Ramblas
138),whereOrwellandhiswifeEileenstayed,heobservedthedeteriorating situationwith
mounting despair, and when street-fighting broke out in May, Orwell was directly caught
up in it. As a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), Orwell be-
came a target when pro-Communist Assault Guards seized the city telephone exchange
near Plaça de Catalunya and began to try to break up the workers' militias. Orwell left the
hotel for the
POUM headquarters
(Ramblas 128) just down the street, sited in the build-
ing that's now the
RivoliRamblas
hotel - a plaque here by the “Banco Popular” sign hon-
ours murdered POUM leader Andrés Nin (“victim of Stalinism”). With the trams on the
Ramblas abandoned bytheir driversastheshootingstarted, andAssault Guardsoccupying
the adjacent
Café Moka
(Ramblas 126), Orwell holed up with a rifle for three days in the
rotunda of the
Teatre Poliorama
(Ramblas 115) opposite, in order to defend the POUM
HQ if necessary. Breakfasting sparsely on goat's cheese bought from the Boqueria market
(its stalls largely empty), concerned about Eileen and caught up in rumour and counter-ru-
mour, Orwell considered it one of the most unbearable periods of his life.
When the fighting subsided, Orwell returned to the front, where he was shot through the
throat by a fascist sniper. Yet that was only the start of his troubles. Recuperating in a san-
atorium near Tibidabo, he learned that the POUM had been declared illegal, its members
roundedupandimprisoned.Heavoidedarrestbysleepingoutinguttedchurchesandderel-
ict buildings and playing the part of a tourist by day, looking “as bourgeois as possible”,
while scrawling POUM graffiti in defiance on the walls of fancy restaurants. Eventually,
with passports and papers arranged by the British consul, Orwell and Eileen escaped Bar-
celona by train - back to the “deep, deep sleep of England” and the writing of his passion-
ate war memoir,
Homage to Catalonia
.
Església de Betlem
Ramblas 107 • Daily 8am-1.30pm, 6-9pm • Liceu
