The streets of Barcelona comprise a battlefield which has hosted, and continues to host, skirmishes and more enduring clashes between armed police and local people.
The streets of Barcelona have seen fierce battles over issues such as workers’ rights, the all-pervasive influence of the Church, education, Republicanism, a Stalinist coup, representative democracy, national independence, workers’ self-management, property speculation, squatters’ rights, forced evictions and revolution.
The city’s layout has been largely informed by the needs of the army.
For example:
- Via Laietana, was deliberately created to allow cavalry units to disperse hostile crowds forming outside the inner city walls.
- Avinguda Diagonal was created to enable rapid access to the heart of the city by troops based in barracks in Gràcia and Pedralbes.
- Parc Ciutadella was once the site of an enormous miltary citadel.
- The castle on Montjuïc, was only handed to the city in 2008; until 1963 it was a prison run by the military to incarcerate and sometimes execute, dissidents.
