Rosanes – a military airfield during the Spanish Civil War

Posted on 23/08/2012 by Michael

Rosanes airfield, La Garriga, Catalonia

Rosanes – a military airfield during the Spanish Civil War

Memorial Democratic, a programme to spread information about the history of the Spanish Civil War, tells the story of the small Republican airfield of Rosanes, just outside La Garriga in the hills just to the north of Barcelona, Catalonia.

I’ve said that it’s possible to walk in this part of Catalonia during the month of August but I would still not recommend doing what I did a few days ago which was to visit the site of one of the Republican airfields during the Spanish Civil War at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Being now farm land there is absolutely no respite from the sun as Catalonia, as well as much of the rest of Spain, is going through a heat wave.

But for anyone interested in that defining period of European history a visit is worthwhile.

Rosanes is the name of a large farm a couple of kilometres to the south of La Garriga, a town which grew up at the end of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th centuries as a favoured place for the Barcelona rich to escape the extreme heat of the Mediterranean summer.

There’s not a great deal left of the complex that existed for a short, but intense, period during 1937-38 but there’s enough to get a feel for what it was like when the Republican air force tried to stand up against the might of the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica. But this quiet place, now returned to use as farm land and a small golf course, played a significant part in some of the campaigns of the Civil War as well as playing its part in the defence of Barcelona, only just over 30 kilometres away.

The reason for the airfield being there was really one of chance. A rich Argentinian businessman, with a passion for flying, constructed a landing strip, together with a hangar, a control tower and a house which were all requisitioned by the Republic when hostilities began.

As the place developed from a private civilian airfield to a military centre all the operational and accommodation facilities were spread over a large area to avoid concentration of resources in a small place which would have had disastrous consequences if there had been a lucky strike by the fascist bombers. All its working life the airfield was under threat of aerial bombardment and three, out of a total of 7, of the still existing structures are air raid shelters.

At two locations in the area there are information points which provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to the activities that took place in those years. With sketches etched into stainless steel any visitor can come away knowing a lot more about what the place looked like and how the airfield functioned as an efficient war machine.

This includes a description of the aircraft that the Republicans used at Rosanes. These were all Polikarpov aircraft provided by the Soviet Union, the most famous of these being the Natasha, a light bomber and the plane around which the aerodrome was built. It was after this squadron was virtually wiped out on returning from a raid on the 24^th December 1938, due to a mistake and consequent lack of fighter support, that Rosanes began to lose its importance.

The information boards also give an indication of the position of Rosanes in the evolution of the Republican defensive front. Much of what the Republican forces built was in response to a concerted attack that had been planned over many months. What has to be remembered is that it was the fascists who were the rebels, rising up against the legitimate government of the Second Republic, who had planned their attack with the overwhelming support of the war machines of Germany and Italy. Taking into account this imbalance of forces it’s surprising that Spain was able to hold out for three years. Poland and France didn’t last a fraction of that time.

The three principal buildings of the pre-war complex still exist but can only normally be seen from afar, as they are now back in private hands. These are the buildings constructed for the Argentinian businessman and are the hangar, the control tower and the house built close by which became a command centre.

The other remaining structures are the air raid shelters. The two smaller ones have gates across the entrances but a little bit of limbo dancing will mean that you can get a view of the interior and this is useful to get an idea of how small they were but still providing the necessary protection against attack.

The third shelter, by far the largest as it was constructed close to the biggest concentration of personnel, can only be seen on one of the organised visits. This is next to Can Sorgues, where there are also the remains of the camp dinning room as well as a sentry box, looking in a very good condition for something that is supposed to be from the 1930s.

But apart from the structures that can be seen/visited perhaps the main thing to be gained from a visit to Rosanes is the realisation of how small things were in those days, how makeshift war was in the mid 1930s and how hit and miss the whole matter of warfare was at that time. Matters moved drastically during the ‘big’ war of 1939-45 (in which Spain did not take part) and so different from the high-tech warfare of today in Iraq, Afghanistan and …. Iran?

A guided tour of Rosanes takes place the second Sunday of every month, meeting at the Rosanes farmhouse at 11.00. In July and August, when it’s much hotter, the visit takes place at 18.00, the one in August being on bicycles. It costs €5. For more information call 93 113 70 31, or email info@visitlagarriga.cat. For some pictures of the time go to www.aviacioiguerra.cat, although this is only in Catalan.

Rosanes Airfield 01

Rosanes Airfield 02

Rosanes Airfield Information Leaflet in pdf format

For more information on Memoria Democratic see:

The air raid shelter of Placeta Macià, Sant Adrià de Besòs

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‘Privatisation’ of Parc Guell?

Posted on 19/08/2012 by Michael

Information Board Parc Guell

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‘Privatisation’ of Parc Guell?

The Barcelona municipal council are considering charging admission for entry into Parc Guell, one of Antonio Gaudi´s gems, in order to get more money from visiting tourists, without improving access or services. This is opposed both by tourists and the local residents.

Parc Guell, to the north of Barcelona, is the green area which offers one of the iconic panoramic views of the city below as well as being the place to see some of Antonio Guadi’s unique designs. If you haven’t yet been able to visit the park then you´d better do so soon if you don’t want to pay.

‘There’s money in them there hills’, according to the municipal government, now in the hands of the CiU party, the right-wing Catalan nationalist party. Every day thousands of tourists visit the park, most seemingly wanting to have their picture taken beside the dragon – which has become the symbol for the park itself. It pains the local grandees that so much money is virtually flowing out of the open gates.

So many people want to visit the area so why not charge them?

Many of the residents around the park are against this virtual privatisation as it would affect them directly and they are also angry that an increasing amount of the park has been paved over, presumably because that makes it cheaper to maintain.

As far as I can remember the park was accessible at all times but when I visited yesterday (the first time for more than 10 years) I was surprised at the substantial gates that prevent access after sunset. This restriction on access would have been instituted by the previous ‘socialist’ local government – who had had control of Barcelona City Council continuously since the death of Franco in 1975 – so a change of government would not necessarily mean a change of policy, if payment is introduced in the near future.

Especially in the peak summer months of July and August Barcelona is teeming with tourists and, as in so many other cities throughout the world, tourism is vital to the local economy. But as is becoming increasingly the case elsewhere, instead of being open and welcoming to visitors the main emphasis seems to be on how to milk them even more.

So far this policy has not had an adverse effect on tourism where surcharges have been introduced already for the mere temerity to want to visit the place, as has happened in Venice. Perhaps people will be prepared to pay ever more to see these places, perhaps not. But it is sad to read, yet again, that politicians consider that almost everything has a price. Don’t be too concerned about the pickpockets operating on the Rambla, it’s the bandits in the town hall who are after every cent you have.

It’s good that the local residents are against charging for entry to Parc Guell. However, one of the lines in their little poster to be seen in the vicinity of the park I find disconcerting. They talk about the ‘poor management of the affluence of visitors’. Does this mean that they don’t care where the tourists are fleeced as long as it doesn’t directly involve them?

March 2014 Update.

It was with a great deal of annoyance that I received the news that you now have to pay for entrance into the park. It was on the day before leaving Barcelona that I was told by Catalan friends that payment was now required to visit the Gaudï structures part of the park, the green space that is the majority of the area is still free to enter.

So the struggle against the privatisation of yet another public area has been lost. I know that the local people were against it but the state, whether local or national, and the greedy and avaricious will never give up until they lose their influence and power. They will always grind us down by their sheer determination to win – we, all too often, give in.

Not having visited Barcelona for more than I year I had missed out on the arguments. I’m sure I’d read that Güell himself had left the park to the people of Barcelona but by maintaining that the green spaces are still freely accessible and by employing a high-flying and expensive lawyer, together with a right-wing administration and judges with fingers in many lucrative pies the privateers have been able to get around whatever he might have desired a hundred years ago .

Not only do you now have to pay there is also a limit of 800 people visiting a day and if you arrive too late you might have a long wait.

Opening times:

25^th October – 23^rd March 08.30 – 18.00

24^th March – 24^th October 08.00 – 21.30

Entrance Fees:

Adults €8.00

Child (7 – 12)/Over 65/Disabled €5.60 – Under 7 free

Tickets can be bought at the ticket vending machines at Lesseps and Vallcarca Metro stations and at various ATMs close to the park, or at the park entrance itself.

7^th March 2014

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Carrers Guarnits in the Festa Major de Gracia, Barcelona, 2012

Posted on 19/08/2012 by Michael

Carrers Guarnits, Gracia, Festa Major, Barcelona, 2012

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Carrers Guarnits in the Festa Major de Gracia, Barcelona, 2012

Every year the Barcelona district of Gracia organises a street based competition during its Festa Major in August. The carrers guarnits (decorated streets) are a tradition going back just under a hundred years and attracts visitors from all parts of the world.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours walking around the streets of the Gràcia district of Barcelona, taking more than a hundred pictures of rubbish, literally, (hopefully not rubbish pictures!).

I used to know this area quite well (about 15 or so years ago) but this time I needed a map to get me there and once I found a reference point it all started to fall into place. Although one of the older parts of Barcelona there is a grid design of the old streets, if maybe not as formalised as the 19^th century area of the Eixample, so it’s not a difficult place to navigate your way around.

At a time when festivals are being invented all the time in order to attract tourist money it was a pleasure to visit an area where they are continuing a tradition that goes back almost a hundred years. In the 1920s neighbours and community organisations based on a street level began to organise a competition to find out who was able to best decorate their street, in Catalan this is ‘carrers guarnits, at the time of the Festa Major in August.

This socialised structure that had been developed in times of peace was to have a profound effect upon the community in the time of the Civil War where these neighbourhood organisations directed their efforts towards the construction of air raid shelters to protect the people from the fascist bombs of the German Nazi and Italian Fascist air forces.

After the Civil War the Festa Major and the decoration of the streets took on a political dimension with references to the colours of the Falangists (Franco’s fascists) in a satirical manner. At first this increased the number of streets that would be decorated but as the years went by the numbers dropped and by the end of the 1970s the tradition was all but dying out.

As the society got used to the fact that Franco had finally kicked the bucket matters slowly started to change and although still a long way from the heyday of 1942 (which saw 70 streets and 5 squares involved in the competition) there were 17 locations putting themselves forward in 2012.

Before the festival opened, the official date is always the 15^th August, different newspapers I read were speculating upon how the economic situation would have an impact upon the display. The argument was that as most of the materials used in the decoration were recycled plastic, paper and cardboard, etc., this should not really have an impact.

To this I would say yes, and no.

The amount of thought, planning and work that goes into these decorations, different every year, is phenomenal. Just like the Rio Carnival the process starts the day after the present festival ends. At times it must be like Blue Peter on speed with children demanding of their mothers the inside cardboard of the toilet roll before it had been used. And a huge amount of material must have been collected and then stored ready to be turned into some quite remarkable objects. However, that ecological idea was not really represented, I think, in the final awarding of honours.

In some of the less complicated ideas there must have been something similar to a production line in reproducing the same objects that hang above the streets for a hundred metres or so. But some of the more complex would have needed trained artists, or at least enthusiastic amateurs, to produce the designs on display.

I visited the festa on the day after the judges had made their decision on the main winners (everyone gets some sort of recognition). However, the gold, silver and bronze winners (after all we are in an Olympic year) were all which had invested more than time and enthusiasm and community involvement in the exercise, they had invested money (and not an insignificant amount).

And this increased investment in the street decorations will inevitably have an effect on the Festa Major in general. Each street has a temporary bar, presumably a money-maker for whatever is planned for the following year. If you win one of the top prizes you will get more visitors and, potentially, more income at those bars. Then you arrive at a situation that exists in football where the most financially better off can maintain their dominance by pure force of money.

As more and more visitors come to see the ‘carrers guarnits’ big companies will be searching for sponsorship opportunities and then any local feeling will gradually disappear. That might be happening already as the Catalan brewer Estrella was represented on every street bar I noticed and would seem to have attained an almost monopoly position.

It would be a shame if commercialisation was able to get its tentacles too deeply into this street festival as it would spell the end of the community spirit that has kept the tradition going for so long.

I enjoyed my time finding my way around the narrow streets and was pleasantly surprised by some of the depth of ideas that were being presented at times, or just the sheer idea of fun. These traditions fail when people take the whole idea TOO seriously.

I was glad to be doing my exploration before noon than after midnight. The smell of piss in the hot Barcelona August sun, the remains of discarded food by the bins (although that would have all been cleaned up by the time the next evening’s festivities began) together with the partly digested pizzas and hamburgers occasionally decorating the pavements indicated the nights could be horrendous.

And it’s not really worth all the hassle for the overpriced delights on offer. After all, its only lager!

I have selected 3 or 4 pictures from each street, to give an idea of what was there this year. See if you can pick the winners and in a few days I will let you know the results and also which ones, and why, I thought should have been on the podium.

Here are a couple of websites which might be of use for anyone thinking of visiting Barcelona at this time of year – but remember it’s hot, hot, hot – or just after more information about the Festa Major.

In the lead up to the Festa Major go to the bario’s official website (in Catalan) here

and the map produced for the event this year (2012)

Gracia Festa Major Map 2012

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