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Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War
A guide to Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War, beginning in the 19th century with the conditions and movements which led to the revolution of 1936, and ending with the fall of the city on 26th January 1939 when Franco's tanks drove down the Diagonal and set about destroying everything the Republic had built. Stories from the aftermath of the war, the exile and the Franco regime are also included. In addition with dealing with the more obvious themes such as anarchism, the Spanish Republic, Catalonia, George Orwell, the aerial bombing, and the May Days, etc, the book also looks at themes such as the Zoo during the Civil War, the American Sixth Fleet in the city, Barça, urbanism, Nazis in Barcelona, Robert Capa, the Spanish in the Holocaust, poster art... Intertwined in the text are contemporary quotes and a few personal stories of people I have met who experienced the war or its aftermath. There are also biographies of characters such as Andreu Nin and Lluís Companys. REVIEWS The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) "This is a wonderful hybrid of a book. The text tells much about Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War and much else mostly about the radical history of the city. But its other purpose is to be a companion while one is in Barcelona itself to provide information and illumination about the city’s terrible, dramatic, and heroic Civil War history." Military History Book Review "Nick Lloyd has produced a brilliant account of a fascinating city and an even more fascinating period of political and social upheaval"
552 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 2015
79 people are currently reading
460 people want to read
About the author
Nick Lloyd
14 books93 followersOne of Britain’s new generation of military historians, Nick Lloyd is a Professor of Modern Warfare at King’s College London and the author of four books on World War I, including The Western Front, Hundred Days, and Passchendaele. He lives in Cheltenham, England.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 16, 2016
A must read for anyone visiting Barcelona.
Nick Lloyd has produced a brilliant account of a fascinating city and an even more fascinating period of political and social upheaval. Nick’s book is an expansion of the walking tours he provides and gives far more detail than you could pick up in one of his excellent 4 hour tours. By the way I highly recommend the tours if you are in the city even if you’ve read his book.
His knowledge of the period and the political factions is extensive and he explains in a very readable style the background behind these causes of conflict that makes the history easy to follow, but not too simplified.
Whilst the book is a history lesson in itself, it also allows the reader to explore locations from rare Republican street signs that were all but obliterated after Franco’s victory to bullet holes and bomb damage that still scar the city today. Throughout the book are fascinating stories of individuals and locations that he has picked up from his 20 years residence in the city. Did you know that Popeye was used as a mascot of the anarchists?
A must read for anyone visiting Barcelona and a unique record of the first and only modern city in the world to have anarchists in its government and also one of the first cities to be area bombed from the air.
Nick Lloyd has produced a brilliant account of a fascinating city and an even more fascinating period of political and social upheaval. Nick’s book is an expansion of the walking tours he provides and gives far more detail than you could pick up in one of his excellent 4 hour tours. By the way I highly recommend the tours if you are in the city even if you’ve read his book.
His knowledge of the period and the political factions is extensive and he explains in a very readable style the background behind these causes of conflict that makes the history easy to follow, but not too simplified.
Whilst the book is a history lesson in itself, it also allows the reader to explore locations from rare Republican street signs that were all but obliterated after Franco’s victory to bullet holes and bomb damage that still scar the city today. Throughout the book are fascinating stories of individuals and locations that he has picked up from his 20 years residence in the city. Did you know that Popeye was used as a mascot of the anarchists?
A must read for anyone visiting Barcelona and a unique record of the first and only modern city in the world to have anarchists in its government and also one of the first cities to be area bombed from the air.
January 8, 2022
It's impossible to tell the story of the Spanish Civil War without Barcelona. Even though most of the large-scale battles happened elsewhere (Madrid, Guadalajara, Brunete, Teruel, etc.), Barcelona was the beating heart of the Republic and the one place where the revolutionary dream came closest to realization.
While the standard histories of the war include a few chapters about doings in Barcelona, Forgotten Places goes all in, presenting the political and social history of the city from the late 19th century through the end of the war and sometimes beyond. While this may sound like heavy going, it isn't because of the author's unusual approach.
Nick Lloyd (the author) isn't a professional historian. He's a Brit who's lived in Barcelona for many years and runs Spanish Civil War-themed walking tours through the city. This book is the culmination of his years of research into the events before, during, and after the war, which includes deep dives into the archives and interviews with people who were involved or their descendants. The first ~100 pages are a more-or-less straightforward narrative of the roots of revolution in Barcelona and how it played out on a macro scale. This is essentially backstory for the other ~280 pages: a series of virtual walking tours of different districts that serve as frameworks on which to hang the stories of the many people and events that made the city's wartime experience so rich and so fraught.
It's in these disparate narratives that the author's lack of academic credentials serves him best. Rather than dry recitations of dates and jargon, Lloyd (a self-described storyteller) weaves engaging tales in plain language about both the famous (Lluis Companys, Buenaventura Durruti, George Orwell) and the obscure (Joan Pujol, a Barcelonan who eventually became Garbo, the most important double agent in MI-6's employ during WWII). He visits the bars and cafes and hotels that teemed with the many factions and tells how the bulletholes came to be in the facades of ordinary homes and businesses. Along the way, he quotes from published diaries and private letters of people who were involved.
The author's sympathies clearly lie with the doomed Republic. That said, he doesn't shy away from talking about the excesses of the revolutionaries and the depredations of both the Republic's SIM internal security agency and the sub rosa workings of the NKVD (sent by Stalin to enforce discipline among the various communist factions and purge the leftist movements he considered enemies of the USSR). He visits several churches burned during the anticlerical violence that immediately followed the popular quashing of Franco's attempted coup in the city, as well as a couple that were spared; he also presents the roots of that violence, which run much deeper and earlier than just the war. The status of women, the hardships suffered by children, food and the lack of it, public health and the lack of it...the subjects range far and wide, making a rich tapestry of one city's experience of one of the most wrenching events in the early 20th century.
The missing star was nibbled away by a number of relatively minor complaints. The text could use some careful copy editing. The pictures are few and small; this may be one area in which the Kindle version may have one over on the paperback, because the reader would be able to bring up the full-sized images with a touch. The three maps are also too small to be especially useful, and nothing ties the narratives and the maps together. There's a useful glossary at the end, but no index, a major omission when particular events and people are associated with multiple locations but there's no one place to go to find them all. I've read books by professional historians that have the same problems and I've dinged them for it, too.
Forgotten Places is a readable, engaging guide to Barcelona's version of the Spanish Civil War. It's both a cultural history and the expected recounting of the big events and the doings of the great and good/bad. It's easy to imagine the author leading his tour group through the city's streets and telling these same stories while standing on the sidewalk, pointing to the shrapnel marks and etched graffiti. If you have any interest in the Spanish Civil War or in Barcelona, you should without question read this book.
While the standard histories of the war include a few chapters about doings in Barcelona, Forgotten Places goes all in, presenting the political and social history of the city from the late 19th century through the end of the war and sometimes beyond. While this may sound like heavy going, it isn't because of the author's unusual approach.
Nick Lloyd (the author) isn't a professional historian. He's a Brit who's lived in Barcelona for many years and runs Spanish Civil War-themed walking tours through the city. This book is the culmination of his years of research into the events before, during, and after the war, which includes deep dives into the archives and interviews with people who were involved or their descendants. The first ~100 pages are a more-or-less straightforward narrative of the roots of revolution in Barcelona and how it played out on a macro scale. This is essentially backstory for the other ~280 pages: a series of virtual walking tours of different districts that serve as frameworks on which to hang the stories of the many people and events that made the city's wartime experience so rich and so fraught.
It's in these disparate narratives that the author's lack of academic credentials serves him best. Rather than dry recitations of dates and jargon, Lloyd (a self-described storyteller) weaves engaging tales in plain language about both the famous (Lluis Companys, Buenaventura Durruti, George Orwell) and the obscure (Joan Pujol, a Barcelonan who eventually became Garbo, the most important double agent in MI-6's employ during WWII). He visits the bars and cafes and hotels that teemed with the many factions and tells how the bulletholes came to be in the facades of ordinary homes and businesses. Along the way, he quotes from published diaries and private letters of people who were involved.
The author's sympathies clearly lie with the doomed Republic. That said, he doesn't shy away from talking about the excesses of the revolutionaries and the depredations of both the Republic's SIM internal security agency and the sub rosa workings of the NKVD (sent by Stalin to enforce discipline among the various communist factions and purge the leftist movements he considered enemies of the USSR). He visits several churches burned during the anticlerical violence that immediately followed the popular quashing of Franco's attempted coup in the city, as well as a couple that were spared; he also presents the roots of that violence, which run much deeper and earlier than just the war. The status of women, the hardships suffered by children, food and the lack of it, public health and the lack of it...the subjects range far and wide, making a rich tapestry of one city's experience of one of the most wrenching events in the early 20th century.
The missing star was nibbled away by a number of relatively minor complaints. The text could use some careful copy editing. The pictures are few and small; this may be one area in which the Kindle version may have one over on the paperback, because the reader would be able to bring up the full-sized images with a touch. The three maps are also too small to be especially useful, and nothing ties the narratives and the maps together. There's a useful glossary at the end, but no index, a major omission when particular events and people are associated with multiple locations but there's no one place to go to find them all. I've read books by professional historians that have the same problems and I've dinged them for it, too.
Forgotten Places is a readable, engaging guide to Barcelona's version of the Spanish Civil War. It's both a cultural history and the expected recounting of the big events and the doings of the great and good/bad. It's easy to imagine the author leading his tour group through the city's streets and telling these same stories while standing on the sidewalk, pointing to the shrapnel marks and etched graffiti. If you have any interest in the Spanish Civil War or in Barcelona, you should without question read this book.
March 18, 2021
A great read for anyone interested in one of the most important moments in modern history, the Spanish Civil War, and in the city of Barcelona. The author gives one of the best summaries I’ve read on the events leading up to the conflict, avoiding heavy and lengthy details on the complexities and presenting the facts in short sections easy to read through. The second part of the book focuses on locations across the centre of Barcelona where these events unfolded.
Scholars on the ideological, geographical and social complexities of Spain in the ‘30s may find it too simplified and superficial, but the intention of the book is to provide a different and historical vision of Barcelona beyond the present day top tourist destination focusing on the moment of history that changed the city, Catalonia and Spain forever.
Scholars on the ideological, geographical and social complexities of Spain in the ‘30s may find it too simplified and superficial, but the intention of the book is to provide a different and historical vision of Barcelona beyond the present day top tourist destination focusing on the moment of history that changed the city, Catalonia and Spain forever.
April 10, 2021
I went on one of his company's tours in Barcelona and it was the best tour I've ever been on. This book is a bit dry at time and it's a tour book so the stories are all broken up by location so sometimes it's hard to follow a narrative (but the structure is also a highlight). I'm not sure this would have worked for me so well without the background so wouldn't read this as the first book on the topic, but I loved this and it had so many interesting tidbits and it felt like a tour which was just amazing.
January 8, 2025
I attended a tour of Barcelona’s civil war and anarchist history with Nick’s partner Catherine, which was an eye-opening look at the hidden history behind the many buildings and places I pass by daily — a must-do for anyone in the city! This book provides more details and context for anyone wishing to go deeper: it is well-researched and can serve as a companion for people wanting to do self-guided tours too.
February 5, 2016
An excellent book on the CSW. From the viewpoint of Barcelona the CSW is brought to life. The idealism, tragedy, and savagery of that period is evoked by an excellent writing style; which makes this book very readable.
March 13, 2017
Fascinating and comprehensive. I've read a few books on the civil war now and this has set the context to the Barcelona troubles perfectly. Time to reread Homage to Catalonia with a new foundation to work from. Wicked book.
October 18, 2020
Great history
A great review of the Spanish civil war and anarchist movement in Spain. Highly informative and educational. Enjoyed it immensely.
A great review of the Spanish civil war and anarchist movement in Spain. Highly informative and educational. Enjoyed it immensely.
August 19, 2023
I enjoyed this book a great deal. My previous knowledge of the detail of The Spanish Civil War was mainly derived from Orwell's book Homage to Catalonia, a visit to the town of Guernica, and from going to see Picasso's masterpiece Guernica in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. I remember the death of Franco in 1975 but had never really understood how events in Spain were connected to the cold war era that I grew up in.
The first part of Nick Lloyd's book gives a fascinating summary of the events leading to during and after the civil war from the perspective of Barcelona. The complexity of the relations and politics between the Francoist insurgents, the Republican Government and the variety of leftist anti-fascist groupings comes across very clearly. This gives so much detailed context to how any why the anti-fascist groups at first worked together and later sought to destroy each other. Clarified too are the roles of the Catholic Church, Hitler and Mussolini and the ambivalent attitude of the British.
The second part of the book is a guided tour of Barcelona, its buildings and landmarks. But this is no mere dry inventory of locations. Each place is brought to life by details of the key events and people associated with them. Prisons, shops, execution grounds, cemeteries, mass graves, brothels, bars, restaurants, battlegrounds, homes, hospitals are all there and each with a story of real historical and human interest. We learn about great leaders, great evil, great inventors and innovators as well as the stories of ordinary people struggling to survive in a war torn area with little food, water or respite from war not of their making. We learn too of the personalities of the foreigners who volunteered to fight or otherwise got caught uo in the fighting.
Barcelona is only one city that was devastated by The Spanish Civil War but a vital and important one with the ramifications of events and the intertwined cause of Catalan identity being a live issue into the 21st Century. Indeed without an understanding of events in Spain from 1936 to 1975 one would be hard pushed to make sense of much of contemporary European history.
A final thought is about what the events of the 1930's in Barcelona can tell us about how future societies might become fairer and more equal. For at least a period in Barcelona there was optimism about the future before, as is it seems always the case, removing one repressive regime simply leads to it being replaced by another.
Great book - much to think about - a useful travel guide but a great deal more beside!!
The first part of Nick Lloyd's book gives a fascinating summary of the events leading to during and after the civil war from the perspective of Barcelona. The complexity of the relations and politics between the Francoist insurgents, the Republican Government and the variety of leftist anti-fascist groupings comes across very clearly. This gives so much detailed context to how any why the anti-fascist groups at first worked together and later sought to destroy each other. Clarified too are the roles of the Catholic Church, Hitler and Mussolini and the ambivalent attitude of the British.
The second part of the book is a guided tour of Barcelona, its buildings and landmarks. But this is no mere dry inventory of locations. Each place is brought to life by details of the key events and people associated with them. Prisons, shops, execution grounds, cemeteries, mass graves, brothels, bars, restaurants, battlegrounds, homes, hospitals are all there and each with a story of real historical and human interest. We learn about great leaders, great evil, great inventors and innovators as well as the stories of ordinary people struggling to survive in a war torn area with little food, water or respite from war not of their making. We learn too of the personalities of the foreigners who volunteered to fight or otherwise got caught uo in the fighting.
Barcelona is only one city that was devastated by The Spanish Civil War but a vital and important one with the ramifications of events and the intertwined cause of Catalan identity being a live issue into the 21st Century. Indeed without an understanding of events in Spain from 1936 to 1975 one would be hard pushed to make sense of much of contemporary European history.
A final thought is about what the events of the 1930's in Barcelona can tell us about how future societies might become fairer and more equal. For at least a period in Barcelona there was optimism about the future before, as is it seems always the case, removing one repressive regime simply leads to it being replaced by another.
Great book - much to think about - a useful travel guide but a great deal more beside!!
December 29, 2017
This is a thoroughly researched guide to (Spanish) Civil War Barcelona. The book gives details of what happened at crucial moments in the war, along with a detailed chronology of events. There are lengthy stories of such important characters as Buenaventura Durruti, Lluis Companys, Andreu Nin, Francesc Boix and George Orwell. The Civil War was an important moment in 20th century history and a precursor to the much wider and more destructive war to come. Many of the wounds of the war, and the Franco period that followed it, are still festering in the body politic of the country today. The book's connection between physical places such as buildings and squares to people and events is very cool.
I wish the book had a better (i.e. any) index.
I wish the book had a better (i.e. any) index.
April 12, 2024
An absolute must for anyone interested in learning more about the Spanish civil war and its impact in Barcelona. Well researched, full of interesting facts I didn't know (and I'm Catalan), and also packed with emotion. This book definitely gave me a picture of what life in Barcelona must have been for my grandad, great-aunt and my great grandparents.
October 13, 2018
Somewhat dry but extremely informative with broad vision of the Spanish Civil War
February 14, 2021
Close up look at the Spanish Civil War with a special focus on some of the individual players.
December 14, 2025
The best travel guide I have ever read. Not afraid to get political.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews