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CIVIL WAR IN LES PRESES
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TOURISTIC TOUR OF COOLTUR CULTURAL TOURISM
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THE SECOND REPUBLIC
On April 14, 1931, the Second Republic was proclaimed in Spain, after King
Alfonso XIII left the country to emigrate to Italy. With the proclamation of the
new democratic regime, a new Constitution was drafted on 9 December 1931,
which marked a separation, until then non-existent, between Church and State,
and also accepted regional autonomies (with the approval of the Statutes of
Autonomy of Catalonia, 9 September 1932, Euskadi, October 1936, and
Galicia, 1 February 1938).
We can divide the Second Republic into three very clear phases:
- 1931-1933 as a Reforming Biennium, where the new government of the
Republic implemented a large number of reforms. Among these reforms are the
improvement of labour rights, a reform of the army, the creation of a law for
divorce, the secularisation of cemeteries (making cemeteries public and not
ecclesiastical places), the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, the construction of
new schools (with a change in the education law, ceasing to segregate classes
on the basis of sex), etc. All these reforms were strongly criticized by right-wing
ideological parties, as well as by the church and the army, without receiving
much support from the working classes. This Government, moreover, had to
face some attempt of military uprising.
- 1933-1936 as a Black Biennium, where the new Government of the Republic
was formed by right-wing political formations. During this biennium, the new
Government paralyzed all the reforms made during the first biennium. In
addition, this government had to deal with the uprising of the Asturian miners,
as well as the revolt, known as the October Acts, which took place in Catalonia
(in which the Statute of Autonomy was suspended, and the representatives of
the Government of the Generalitat were imprisoned after Lluís Companys
proclaimed the Catalan State within a Spanish Federal Republic).
- 1936-1939 as the Government of the Popular Front, where the left-wing
parties recover the Government, and restart the reforms begun in 1931. This is
the government that had to manage the entire Civil War after the attempted, half
frustrated, coup d'état by conservative sectors of the army.
ONSET OF WAR
On July 19, 1936, two days after it had happened with the Moroccan troops,
there was a military uprising in Catalonia. This revolt was stopped thanks to the
forces of public order and groups of the different popular militias (formed by
militants of different political parties and trade unions, as well as volunteers).
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Although in Catalonia, as in other Spanish regions, the uprising could be
stopped, it triumphed in other parts of the territory, and thus began the Spanish
Civil War.
The Government of the Republic, seeing the military uprising, signed some
decrees dissolving all the units of the Army that took part in the revolt, and the
licensing of all the troops that had been placed against the republican legality.
This government decision left the state with practically no army personnel. In
addition, most of the army chiefs who had rebelled were executed by the
popular militias.
The disappearance of the army, together with an increase in the armed civilian
population, led to a total collapse of the public administration, which was
replaced, during a brief period of confusion, local and regional, formed by
heavily armed civilian people.
During these days, the prisons of Catalonia were opened, freeing the prisoners
there were (most were common criminals) to fill them with right-wing people,
religious, military, mass people, etc (all were detained for their ideas and
beliefs). This repression was done using legal methods that existed. However,
some 8500 people were killed by the "uncontrolled" acting on their own. The
Generalitat tried to prevent these killings, as well as the destruction of religious
buildings, archives, libraries and religious treasures by giving passports and
protecting the exit of thousands of people, and using religious buildings to
prevent their destruction. In certain towns and cities, moreover, the local
committees also managed to save some buildings, such as Girona Cathedral,
La Seu d'Urgell, Tarragona Cathedral, etc. However, religious practice was
reduced to clandestinely, bringing Catalan Catholic opinion closer to Francoism.
To try to redress this situation of great disorder, on July 20, 36, President
Companys met with the union leaders to try to reach an agreement. He first
admitted to them the merit of the victory over the rebellious army, and
apologized for the repression these organizations might have suffered in the
past. In addition, he also offered them power (knowing that they could not
accept) and proposed to them to create a Central Committee of Antifascist
Militias, a body that was accepted by the CNT-FAI. On 27 November 1936,
when the CNT-FAI decided to join the Government, the Central Committee of
Antifascist Militias was dissolved, once again establishing the power of the
Government of the Generalitat. In this agreement, the Generalitat of Catalonia
was formed by three representatives of the CNT, two of the FAI, three of
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), three of UGT and one by Acció
Catalana Republicana, Unión de Rabassaires, PSUC and POUM.
In addition, from the outset, different militia groups (volunteers) went to fight in
Aragon, with the idea of recovering Zaragoza. All these columns were formed
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by volunteers who wanted to fight against fascism, and others anxious to use
the weapons taken. These groups, without military training, were advised by
some military chief, and obtained the first victories on the battlefield.
Once again the Generalitat took control of the situation, attempted to regularize
all the collectivisations of companies that the committees had made, as well as
attempting to investigate and prosecute all those murders that the
revolutionaries had perpetrated without a legal trial.
During the war, the great ideological divergences of all the political forces acting
in Catalonia (anarchists, communists and socialists), exploded on May 3, 1937,
giving way to the well-known "May Facts", creating a War within the War,
where communist groups clashed with the Generalitat, at the same time as the
CNT clashed with the POUM. These events took place in Barcelona and lasted
a week, leaving about 280 dead. Once the events of May were controlled, a
new General Council was formed, which lasted until the end of the War, when
the CNT ceased to have representation.
LES PRESES
Les Preses is a municipality of La Garrotxa that is located in the North of the
Valley d'en Bas, very close to Olot. In 1936 its main urban nucleus was Sant
Pere de les Preses (currently Les Preses), but it also included other
neighbourhoods such as Vall del Corb. The total number of inhabitants that year
was 1,142, including the village, neighbours and dispersed farmhouses. In
general it was a municipality dedicated to livestock and agriculture and, to a
lesser extent, to forestry exploitation. An entity that marked the development
and municipal policy of those years was the Agricultural Union, founded in 1907
and that when the war broke out had about 200 members. The Union was
politically linked to the Rabasaires Union. Other forces present in Les Preses
were ERC with 78 members and the CNT with 60.
From COOLTUR Cultural Tourism we want to propose you a tour through
Les Preses to discover the years of the War, as well as the seizure of the
village by the coup troops commanded by General Franco, thus initiating
the Franco dictatorship in this village.
We will begin this tour in the Major Street num. 1
Town Hall
We will begin our tour in front of the old Town Hall of Les Preses, in order to
follow the politics of those years of war.
After a period of uncertainties, on August 16, 1936 it was decided to constitute
an Anti-Fascist Executive Committee to stabilize the municipality and start the
revolution. Fortunately, a few years ago the Founding Act of the Committee was
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found in the Archives of
Salamanca. The
Document is dated August
20 and includes the list of
the 12 people who formed
it: 5 members of the Union
of Rabasaires, 2 of the
CNT, 1 of the POUM, 1 of
ERC, 1 of the UGT and
two soldiers of the 1935
Levy.
Throughout the month of
September, the Committee and the Union protected the expropriation, and
subsequent distribution, of the municipality's lands in a relatively peaceful
manner. In other nearby centres, such as La Pinya, riots were registered due to
collectivisations.
On 10 October, following the directives of the Generalitat, the Committee was
dissolved and a new Town Hall was set up, made up of 3 councillors from ERC,
3 from the CNT, 2 from the PSUC, 1 from Catalan Action and 1 from the Union
of Rabasaires (Union). The mayor, also of Union of Rabasaires, was Miquel
Castey Rovira.
That same month of October, the City Council undertook the collective
exploitation of the forests, paying 25 pesetas a day to the villagers who cut
down trees. This allowed many inhabitants to get out of unemployment and to
give subsistence to the families. Many of these forests belonged to Can Mata
but, with the escape of the owners, they were confiscated by the Town Hall.
This practice ended in May 1937. Another initiative to occupy people from
forced unemployment and refugees was the construction of the road to the
neighbourhood of Corb, one of the most populated and poorly communicated at
that time.
The calls to fifths forced to modify several times the composition of the Town
Hall.
The first calls were in December 1936 and January 23, 1937, where Miquel
Castey left the mayor's office, which passed to Miquel Serra Planella, also
member of the Rabasaires Union.
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On 26 June 1937, like
most Catalan
municipalities, Les
Preses allocated an
amount of 2,000
pesetas to the issue
of local currency to
address the lack of
liquidity. Specifically,
notes were printed
with a value of one
peseta (one thousand
pesetas in total), fifty
and 25 cents (one thousand pesetas in total), which carried the coat of arms of
Catalonia. This coin only had value in the municipal sphere, in order to avoid
the lack of liquidity provoking the exchange as a means of transaction. In this
respect, the City Council necessarily took control of the distribution of bread and
the fixing of its price (3 pounds of bread made with 10 kg of flour would be sold
for 1 peseta), the control of milk, cereal (wheat and corn) and, late in the war,
the slaughter of the pig. All these facts generated several conflicts with the
citizens, and in some occasions, having to fine them for non-compliance with
the rules. To transport supplies and other materials, the City Council
requisitioned two cars and a truck, the latter ceded to the Agrarian Union. The
truck in question was requisitioned by the People's Army in Olot on 21 June
1938.
In the military aspect, in Les Preses there were no combats or bombardments
of entity and, therefore, it was not necessary to mount an active and / or passive
defensive system. The Town Hall was in charge of communicating to the fifths
that they presented themselves in the nearest Instruction Centre to enlist in the
Republican Army. In the case of Les Preses, the corresponding centre was the
former Collell seminary. In Les Preses a municipal tax was created for the fifths,
so that each young person called to rows received 200 pesetas from the City
Council, to provide themselves with clothes or complementary material. This tax
recorded, above all, the families with deserters. The majority of right-wing or
Catholic youth fled at the beginning of the war, but there were also many who
fled from home when they were fifth graders so as not to go to the front. In Les
Preses there were many young people hidden in the forest ("the ambushes")
and in isolated farmhouses.
In general, the City Council of Les Preses undertook many initiatives to improve
the lives of its inhabitants. Examples are the Corb road and the public logging,
which we have already seen, but also the creation of a nursery, bring electricity
to the neighbourhood of Corb, create a school in that neighbourhood or build a
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sports field in a free space
between Cal Castey and Mas
Fluvià. As it is a municipal
boundary, we have received
news about the complaints of
the farmers of Sant Privat
about the balls that their crops
received when they were next
to the football field.
Miquel Castey Rovira, ex-
mayor and peasant linked to the Union of Rabasaires and ERC, was arrested
by the Franquist troops, imprisoned in Girona and condemned in a War Council.
Four more neighbours were arrested and sentenced to prison, but only one had
political affiliation and had been a councillor and soldier during the war. Miquel
Castey was shot and buried in the Girona cemetery on 12 May 1939. He was
78 years old and sick.
Move a few metres back along Major Street
Convent "Ca les Monges" (Present Town Hall)
From the autumn of 1936, a
flood of refugees began to
arrive in Catalonia. The war
pushed many people to flee
the fighting and subsequent
repression. The Generalitat
was the organism that
assumed the lodging and the
maintenance of the refugees
that arrived in Catalonia. On
many occasions, the Generalitat entrusted the local councils with the local
management of this task. In principle, in 1936 it was established that the
municipalities would receive the number of refugees corresponding to 10% of
the total registered inhabitants. Throughout the war this rule was exceeded by
far.
In the case of Les Preses, which in 1936 had 1,142 inhabitants, the maximum
was reached in April 1938 with 117 registered refugees. Surely from this date
and especially during the retreat during the winter of 1939, the number
increased. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the 1936 census
corresponds to the entire municipality, including farmhouses and
neighbourhoods. The refugees, however, were housed in the nucleus of Sant
Pere and, therefore, the feeling of having many refugees was more evident.
1 Old football field
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The first refugees arrived at the end of 1936 and there were 20 or 22 people
who were accommodated in the houses of the deserters. On the 9th of October
1937 there were already 100 or 102 refugees in the village and the Town Hall
decided to create a Refuge for the displaced. The building of the convent of
nuns (old schools), confiscated by the Committee at the beginning of the war,
was used to locate this accommodation centre. At the time of adapting them to
the refugees, only a newly created municipal nursery was located in the
building. This Centre was maintained by the Town Hall as well as possible.
There are many municipal campaigns to get potatoes, warm clothes, and wine
and even to pay for burials of children who died of diseases. As we said, in April
1938 there were already 117 refugees and it seems that the number increased.
With the capacity to the limit, the tension in the Refuge exploded the 2 of
October of 1938, causing an incident and disturbances due to the bad
distribution of the food. The Town Hall stopped the person in charge of
distributing the food and replaced it with another one.
We don't know much more about the refugees at the end of the war, but the
census of Les Preses in 1940 was 1,178 inhabitants, 36 more people. This
leads us to think that, subtracting the casualties from the war and the
subsequent repression, quite a few refugees decided to stay and rebuild their
lives in Les Preses, where they shared so many hardships with the locals.
Advance a few meters along the street Major to the square Major
Church of Sant Pere
Lawyer to Saint Peter the 922 A.D. ended up
giving name to the entire town. Consecrated in
1119, it collapsed due to the earthquakes of 1427-
28. Mostly rebuilt during the nineteenth century,
this church has a double bell tower inaugurated in
1911. Looted in July 1936, but probably little
damaged. As far as we know, during the spring of
1938 it served as a bedroom for one or two
platoons of the Special Sections of the 15th
International Brigade during their training. It was
restored after the war.
We can see Can Mata in the same square
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Can Mata
Large house that occupies part
of the Major Square,
documented in 971. Former
landowners and mayors of Les
Preses lived in this house.
During the 19th century, it was
the residence of notaries,
solicitors and Carlist generals. A
legend even attributes it to be
the origin of the village, founded
by a nobleman of the Empúries
lineage. It is a very elongated
building of considerable dimensions with a two-sided roof. On the main façade
there is a lintel doorway overlooking the street. There are also windows of
carved stone. In the part of this façade there is a gallery and a corridor - bridge
that joins the building, making some arcades, to an older part. Most of the
construction dates from the XVII-XVIII century. During the years 1937 and 1938
it housed part of the General Staff of the Air Force Camp. In spring 1938 also
resided the commanders of the XV International Brigade, it even seems that its
political commissioner Josif Broz stayed for a few weeks. During the Second
World War, Josif Broz was best known by his war name: Marshal Tito, who
presided over Yugoslavia until 1980. The soldiers housed in the various
buildings of Can Mata numbered almost a hundred people, including officers,
airmen and military "camouflaged" (special section). They had no contact with
the civilian population of Les Preses.
From the Major Square we take the street of the Hospital (left looking at the
Church) until the Hospital
92m
Hospital
Old Hospital of Les Preses, founded during the 18th century. Today it is a camp
house. During the war, the Town
Hall tried to start up the hospital.
The consistory assumed the cost
of doctors and medicines both for
people in need and for refugees.
The burials of many people were
also assumed from the municipal
coffers. In addition, it was a
municipal function to
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communicate to the families the deaths of the natural soldiers of Les Preses
fallen in the front of war.
Continue along the same street from the Hospital to the farmhouse next to the
cemetery.
56m
Cal Bord
In this house, which during
the war was dedicated to
cattle breeding, 16 members
of the Special Section of the
XV International Brigade or
"Death Section" were housed
during the spring of 1938. Of
different nationalities, they
were commanded by a
Frenchman of Spanish origin
and slept and ate in the attic
of the house. Approximately,
from March 14 to April 14, those men received guerrilla training to be deployed
on the Ebre River. Mountain marches, river crossings, blasting, hand-to-hand
combat... Every afternoon they went to Olot to distract themselves. The family
of three generations that welcomed them were breeders sympathizers of the
Republic and resided in the other floors of the house. When the war was over,
the Franquists executed two members of the family and requisitioned the
haystack to keep barbed wire, to put obstacles in the mountains, in the direction
of France. Once escaped from a work camp, the French officer escaped to
France the winter of 1940, not without spending a few days hiding in this house
that he knew well and leaving a good amount of money to the family.
Walk along the street of the Hospital to the intersection with the street Mata
56m
Continue along La Mata street until the crossroads with Sant Francesc street,
just after the La Bòbila School.
190m
Follow a few meters the street of Sant Francesc until it becomes the path of
Bellaire
600m
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Continue along the Bellaire path, which joins the Carrilet greenway until we see
the anti-aircraft shelters on the other side of the road.
850m
Airfield
Like many other Civil War airfields,
the Les Preses airfield was a
secondary or support runway. This
means that it was used to move
planes from one base to another or
to test planes or pilots. Work began
in the spring of 1937, and was
located between the river Fluvià
and the road to Olot, the Mas
Verntallat and the road to Sant
Sebastià. Most of the affected
farmhouses and fields were evicted
and confiscated. The landing strip
was made of earth and was
crossed by a drainage irrigation system made of stone, with a flow of about 2
metres. A small stream from Les Preses flowed into this irrigation and the canal
carried the water to the river Fluvià. In spite of this infrastructure, normally the
Field was very muddy. Both the construction and the maintenance of the airstrip
were the responsibility of the fascist prisoners of war in the SIM prison camp at
Hostalets d'en Bas. These prisoners were sent by the cruel captain Francisco
Martínez Hidalgo, who ordered tools from the Town Hall of Les Preses in May
1938. The only two occasions when the Camp entered service, as far as is
known, a landing plane was blocked by excessive mud on the runway. Given
that many confiscations affected fields cultivated by farmers of Sant Privat d'en
Bas, we have news that in June 1938 a farmer of this term asked to cultivate in
the football field. Let us remember that the land located between Mas Fluvià
and Can Castey was newly built, but by mid 1938 was no longer used, as the
young people of the village were all on the front.
Cross the C-152 road to the entrance of the refuge
Antiaircraft Shelter 1
The anti-aircraft shelters are part of the
Air Force Field. Initially, 4 were built to
give protection to the airfield personnel
in case of air attack. The construction
is simple but effective and the typology
varies according to its adaptation to the
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ground and the water table of the landing strip,
which rises as we approach towards the North.
This first refuge is a semi-subterranean concrete
corridor with two accesses with stairs and vaulted
roofs.
Continue a few meters next to the C-152 road to find a dirt track to the right, we
take it to reach the river Fluvià.
150m
At the edge of the river, take the path that goes along the verge to the right,
going up the course of the river and crossing it a couple of times until you find
the asphalted road. Cross the ford to the Pas de la Torre house.
1, 2 km
Pas de la Torre
Old house with an annexed
construction (today only two walls
remain). Evicted during the
construction of the airfield, a
telephone switchboard was installed to
communicate the different facilities
with the Barcelona command. The way
(Today Street) of the Pas de la Torre
that goes towards Sant Privat was very
restricted by the military, which put a
control.
Being one of the best fords of the river
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Fluvià, the sector served to prepare the Special Sections of the International
Brigades for the passage of the river Ebro.
Continue along Pas de la Torre street until we found Pintor Dalt street on the
left.
350m
Continue along Pintor Dalt street until you reach the crossroads with Pau
Casals street.
450m
Turn left into Pau Casals street and continue to Sant Sebastià street.
140m
Turn left into Sant Sebastià street until the entrance to the second anti-aircraft
shelter.
32m
Antiaircraft Shelter 2
This second refuge, the
northernmost in the airfield, is the
highest in relation to the terrain. It
consists of a single entrance at an
angle and a little-buried corridor with
an opening at the end. It must be
said that these shelters would not
withstand a direct aerial
bombardment in every rule; they are
more designed to withstand a machine-
gunning of the runway, to touch the
airplanes and ground personnel.
Therefore, the distribution of the 4
shelters along the airfield was intended
to prevent these occasional machine-
guns.
Continue along Sant Sebastià street until we see the Mas Verntallat
450m
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Mas Verntallat
Farmhouse documented in the
twelfth century, very reformed
during the eighteenth century. Its
towers with loopholes and its belfry
stand out. It was the residence of
the lineage of the famous Francisco
de Verntallat, who commanded the
Remenses peasants during the
Catalan Civil War of the 15th
century. During the Spanish Civil
War it was confiscated by the
People's Army and evicted to install the Runway Control, taking advantage of
the fact that it was at the northern
limit of the airfield. This farmhouse
housed the main plane of the air
forces destined to Les Preses. In a
nearby poplar grove the airplanes
were parked, taking advantage of
the little camouflage given by the
trees. The airplanes were always
placed in a draw, to avoid being
machine-gunned in line and in a
single pass by an enemy plane.
Turn around and continue along Sant Sebastià Street towards the centre of Les
Preses, crossing the road. Follow the street that turns right. Finally Sant
Sebastià Street becomes Major Street.
1.0km
Follow the street Major until the Town hall of Les Preses
50m
Major Street - Current Town Hall
Finally, in January 1939 Catalonia fell under the control of the Franquist Army.
We don't have much news of Les Preses as the Town Hall stopped meeting
and, therefore, no minutes were made. On February 5th the fascist planes
bombed the railway station on the outskirts of Olot and caused three victims.
The Airfield was no longer operational and the attack went unpunished. On
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February 6 the enemy artillery was placed on the
heights of the mountain range that separates the
Vall d'en Bas from Osona and opened fire to
cover the descent of Franco's soldiers. On the
seventh day the Moroccans and the 82nd Division
of the "Cuerpo del Maestrazgo" occupied Les
Preses and Olot. Some inhabitants of Les Preses
joined the Republican military staying in the
village and set out on the road of exile, which
passed through Olot and Beget, towards France.
From COOLTUR Cultural Tourism we hope that you have enjoyed this
tourist tour, and that you will have a good day.
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