Early hours On the night of 18/19 July 1936, Catalan President Lluis Companys gave a radio address telling the Catalan people to go to sleep, assuring them that the situation was under control. In the early hours of 19 July, the atmosphere in Barcelona was tense. The
People's Olympiad, due to commence that day, was cancelled and its athletes prepared themselves for the coming battle. President Companys disguised himself in a large hat and went for a walk on La Rambla, where crowds of people gathered to listen to radio announcements on loudspeakers. That night, workers kept watch of the city's military barracks and many did not return to their homes, instead sleeping at their trade union offices. At 03:00, the anarchist leaders Buenaventura Durruti, Francisco Ascaso and Joan Garcia Oliver were darting around the city, coordinating with the various defense committees and trade unions. They visited the Woodworkers' Union on
Avinguda del Paral·lel, the Construction Workers' Union in , the Transport Workers' and Metalworkers' Unions on La Rambla and finally the Textile Workers' Union in
Sant Martí. They then headed to the apartment of
Gregorio Jover on
Passeig de Pujades, where they reunited with other members of
Nosotros. As Jover handed out
chorizo sandwiches and red wine, the anarchists nervously waited for news of the coup. At nearly 04:00, an emergency broadcast warned that a fascist uprising was about to commence in Barcelona. Everything was already prepared, except the two machine guns and Winchester rifles they had with them in the room. They heard a knock on the door and a neighbour informed them that soldiers were leaving the barracks in Pedralbes. They grabbed their weapons, left the apartment and piled into two trucks, each mounted with machine guns and an
anarchist flag. The trucks left towards
El Poblenou, where they were greeted by patrols of workers' militias. When news of the coup beginning reached the Pla de Palau, where workers were still demanding weapons from the Interior Ministry, a sudden silence broke out in the crowd. The silence was broken by an Assault Guard, who handed his pistol to the worker closest to him. At 04:45, factory sirens started blaring throughout the city and the defense committees were mobilised. Members of the CNT-FAI were quickly joined by Assault Guards, members of the POUM,
Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) and even the
Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the latter of whom had received arms from the Catalan government. In the military barracks around the city, alcohol was being distributed to soldiers, who were told by their officers that they had received orders from the
government of Spain to suppress an anarchist uprising. By 05:00, the Spanish Army was on the move. The headed from
Pedralbes down
Avinguda Diagonal towards the city centre, joined along the way by Falangists and other far-right supporters. The headed down
Carrer de Tarragona, towards
Plaça d'Espanya. The
Santiago Cavalry Regiment went from the
Travessera de Gràcia, down
Carrer de la Indústria towards the . Two columns of the 7th Light Artillery left Sant Andreu, marching towards
Plaça de Catalunya. And the Sappers Battalion went down
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes towards
Avinguda del Paral·lel. Meanwhile, the Mountain Artillery Regiment aimed to seize control of the port and the Pla de Palau, and a company of the Alcántara Infantry Regiment went to attack the
Radio Barcelona station on . The troops confidently chanted that "the rabble will run like pussies as soon as they hear the cannons' thunder." In leaving their barracks and advancing towards the city centre, expecting an easy victory, the army had done exactly what the Catalan government and the anarcho-syndicalists expected. installed their
military staff during the uprising The
Nationalists installed their
military staff at the , where they deposed Captain General Llano de la Encomienda and placed Álvaro Fernández Burriel in command of the uprising. Meanwhile, the Catalan government had abandoned its own positions: at the urging of Frederic Escofet, President Lluís Companys had fled the Palace of the Generalitat and escaped to safety. From the on
Via Laietana, Escofet, Guarner and Arrando attempted to coordinate the Catalan government's response. When POUM leader Julián Gorkin went to the Prefecture and requested weapons for his party to fight the uprising, he was rebuffed by Escofet. In contrast to the efforts of the Catalan government, the popular resistance to the coup was largely decentralised, led by various different defense committees and trade unions. People lobbed home-made grenades and fired rifles from the rooftops of their houses, while those who could not fight constructed barricades throughout the city. The barricades built from
paving stones were even capable of withstanding artillery fire, which many of the workers had learnt during the
Tragic Week of 1909. In other parts of Catalonia, the uprising had mixed results: the army rebelled in
Figueres,
Girona,
Lleida,
Mataró and
La Seu d'Urgell; but in the cities of
Manresa and
Tarragona, the army garrisons remained loyal to the Republic. In Lleida, the army and police occupied government buildings, shut down trade union offices and declared martial law, but they did not arrest anyone, which allowed the CNT, UGT and POUM to organise a general strike against the coup. The army also declared martial law in Girona, but citizens' militias were quickly formed there to oppose the coup.
First clashes At 08:00, the first clashes broke out between the rebel soldiers and republican loyalists. When one column of the 7th Light Artillery arrived on
Carrer de Balmes, they were attacked by Assault Guards with grenades, pistols and rifles. The other column was stopped at , where militias forced the column to retreat into a nearby building and set up machine guns in the doorway. When the Badajoz Infantry Regiment arrived on
Plaça de la Universitat, they caused confusion by shouting "Viva la República" (), which gave them time to arrest a number of workers guarding the Plaça and take them to the
University. Part of the Regiment then broke off and headed towards the Plaça de Catalunya, where workers and Assault Guards fired upon them, forcing them to disperse. The troops then occupied a number of strategic buildings on the Plaça, including the
Hotel Colom and the
telephone exchange. Meanwhile, the Montesa Cavalry Regiment had occupied the Plaça d'Espanya, where they set up an artillery cannon. Here they again caused confusion by shouting "Viva la República", which caused a number of Assault Guards to join the rebels, provoking workers' militias to fire at them with pistols and shotguns. During the fighting, some soldiers were dispersed along the Avinguda del Paral·lel and the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. The artillery cannon, manned by Captain
Sancho Contreras, was fired at a barricade in front of the
Hostafrancs town hall, wounding 19 people. This convinced the Assault Guards to abandon the soldiers and return to the side of the workers. The fighting intensified, with women even throwing debris at soldiers from their balconies, and the workers' militias regrouped despite the cannon fire. While fighting continued on the Plaça d'Espanya, some soldiers from the Montesa Regiment and the Sappers Battalion made their way to the Avinguda del Paral·lel, where they encountered a barricade constructed by the Woodworkers' Union at the
Ronda de Sant Pau. The soldiers were repulsed and used their prisoners as
human shields to cover their retreat. They then set up a number of machine guns on the Avinguda del Paral·lel, covering the whole width of the street, and the front line stabilised there. At the
port of Barcelona, when the Mountain Artillery Regiment left their barracks, they discovered that dock workers had used forklifts to construct a moving barricade from huge rolls of paper. Together with a group of Assault Guards, the dock workers resisted the artillery bombardment. Shots were fired from the barricade and from the rooftops of some buildings, causing panic among the regiment's pack mules and blowing up some of the explosive cargo. At one point, a group of workers rushed towards the artillery detachment with their rifles held over their heads. There they pled for the soldiers not to attack their own compatriots and told them that their officers had tricked them. Convinced, the soldiers subsequently turned the artillery cannons around and fired on the remaining rebel holdouts. The advance of the Santiago Cavalry Regiment was also halted at Plaça del Cinc d'Oros, where workers and Assault Guards had manned barricades. Fighting continued around the , the building, the
Columbus Monument, the Drassanes barracks and the
Portal de la Pau. There was heavy crossfire across La Rambla, between the Military Government building and the Drassanes barracks. Higher up La Rambla, the transport workers' and metalworkers' unions built a barricade across the street, containing the soldiers to the port area. Troops in Parc de la Ciutadella were attacked soon after leaving their barracks, forcing them to retreat and barricade themselves inside their base. 50 soldiers from the Sant Andreu barracks were also routed by Assault Guards at the intersection of Avinguda Diagonal and
Carrer de Balmes. Popular resistance to the coup was coordinated from the
Teatre Principal, where defense committees liaised with each other and with the Catalan Regional Committee of the CNT, which had occupied the on Via Laietana. The POUM also occupied part of the Teatre Principal, establishing a first aid station in its lobby. The Barcelona defense committee kept in contact with militias on the Avinguda del Paral·lel through
El Raval, and with those on the Pla de Palau through the
Gothic Quarter; gaining control of these areas would mark the turning point of the battle.
Turning point The first major defeat of the rebel faction occurred at the Pla de Palau, where a barricade built on the Avinguda d'Icària blocked the passage of the Mountain Artillery Regiment. After a few hours of fighting with the workers and Assault Guards, they were overpowered. At 09:30, the Mountain Artillery Regiment withdrew from the Pla de Palau back to the Drassanes barracks, where they hoped to regroup. But as they fell back, dock workers pushed the large rolls of paper towards them and fired on the retreating soldiers, routing the regiment. Workers' militias and Assault Guards advanced, capturing many of the military officers, including Luis López Varela, and some of their artillery cannons. Left without any higher command, some of the soldiers defected to the workers' side, while others barricaded themselves inside the Drassanes barracks. By the time Durruti arrived on the scene at 10:00, the workers' militias and Assault Guards had achieved victory at the port. Communications between the nationalist detachments also broke down, as the workers' committee which had occupied the intercepted and modified their messages to each other, causing confusion in the nationalist ranks. Also around 10:00, the Alcántara Infantry Regiment attempted to occupy the radio station on Carrer de Casp, but they were intercepted by a workers' militia at the
Arc de Triomf. As soldiers were wounded or fled the scene, the regiment retreated to Plaça Urquinaona and took refuge in the . Meanwhile, at the intersection of Carrer de Pau Claris and the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, workers drove lorries at high speed into the soldiers' makeshift barricade. The trucks destroyed the Nationalist lines and allowed the workers to seize the 7th Light Artillery's machine guns. In areas away from the epicentre of the fighting, workers militias constructed barricades and patrolled the streets. In some places they were fired upon from
bell towers, prompting them to storm the churches and
burn them down. When the Santiago Regiment and rebel Civil Guards were about to be cornered at the Plaça del Cinc d'Oros, Francisco Lacasa ordered them to retreat. They took refuge in the old , where they were besieged and ultimately wiped out. Several priests in the convent were
summarily executed, having been falsely accused of taking part in the fighting. Fighting continued at the Plaça de Catalunya, Plaça d'Espanya and Plaça de la Universitat, where both sides remained entrenched. POUM youth leader was killed in the battle at the university. Meanwhile, soldiers on the
Ronda de Sant Pau had driven the workers' militias from the Avinguda del Paral·lel and managed to make contact with their counterparts on the Plaça d'Espanya and in the port. Durruti, Ascaso and Garcia Oliver met at the defense committees' centre at the Teatre Principal, where they discussed how to prevent the troops from gaining control of the port. They were soon joined by
Domingo Belmonte, a member of the CNT Woodworkers' Union, who updated them on the situation on the Ronda de Sant Pau, where the workers' militias were still pinned down by machine guns. They were also joined by José Manzana and Valeriano Gordo, who had grabbed cases of ammunition from the Drassanes barracks and escaped down Carrer de Montserrat. The anarchists
Antonio Ortiz and
Aurelio Fernández then joined the meeting, having just been shot at by a marksman in the Hotel Falcón. Durruti responded by leading an attack on the hotel, where they killed the rebel soldier and returned calm to the Plaça. They then placed a machine gun on a nearby balcony and assigned Manzana and Gordo to use it to attack the Military Government building, with support from the Transport Workers' Union. While Durruti remained at the Plaça to continue coordinating the militias, Garcia Oliver and Ascaso headed for the Ronda de Sant Pau; Garcia Oliver led his detachment down Carrer de Sant Pau and Ascaso led his own down Carrer Nou de la Rambla, converging on either side of the Ronda. They found three machine guns on the Avinguda del Paral·lel: one across from the
Teatre Victòria, another next to and another on the intersection with the Ronda de Sant Pau. When Ascaso's column arrived at the Avinguda, they were completely exposed and quickly came under machine gun fire, forcing them to take cover in doorways and behind street furniture. While they were pinned down, Garcia Oliver's column came around behind the soldiers, effectively encircling them. The workers' militias then attacked, with Ascaso killing the army captain and a cavalry corporal then killing the lieutenant that attempted to replace him. With the commanding officers dead, the remaining officers were taken prisoner and the rebellion on the Ronda de Sant Pau was finally defeated. By 12:00, the military uprising in Barcelona had largely been suppressed, with a few holdouts remaining on the Plaça Catalunya, Plaça d'Espanya and Plaça de la Universitat, and in the Carmelite Convent, Drassanes Barracks and Military Government building. Felipe Díaz Sandino dispatched planes to drop pamphlets over military barracks, informing soldiers that the coup had been defeated and ordering them to surrender.
Arrival of Goded Around midday, five
Savoia-Marchetti SM.62 seaplanes landed at the Barcelona naval base, bringing Manuel Goded to the city. He had managed to secure Nationalist control of Mallorca, although
Menorca remained under Republican control. Goded was greeted with shouts of "Viva" by the assembled military officers, alerting mechanics working on the base to the true character of the military coup against the Republic. Commander
Lázaro Muñoz, chief of the general staff, told Goded that the nationalist troops were "stuck in a mouse-trap". Goded responded that he already knew, but that he had given his word to be there. Hearing the sound of gunfire outside the base, he inquired about the state of the artillery and found out that some cannons had fallen into the hands of the workers' militias. Goded then left in an
armoured car and headed for the Captaincy General, where he confronted Francisco Llano de la Encomienda. The pair called each other traitors and Goded went for his pistol, but Álvaro Fernández Burriel stopped him. When Llano was told that he would be judged by a
military tribunal, he responded with a wry smile. The Nationalist soldiers in the Captaincy had hoped Goded's arrival would turn the course of the battle back in their favour. When Goded learned about their situation, he became worried, as he had believed it impossible that the working class could have defeated the Spanish Army. He hoped he would be able to turn the tide by winning the Civil Guard over to the Nationalist side, but when Goded telephoned José Aranguren and ordered him to subordinate himself to him, Aranguren responded that he would only take orders from the Republican government. As Goded appealed to Aranguren, he asked the Nationalist commander whether he was rebelling against the government or the Republic. When Goded responded that he was rebelling against the government, Aranguren informed him that the Casares Quiroga government had already been replaced by one led by
José Giral. Goded contested that it was a new government, as it still involved the same parties, and insisted that the army's victory was inevitable. Aranguren ended the conversation by telling Goded that his uprising had failed. The exchange enraged Goded, who quickly telephoned Jacobo Roldán and inquired about the state of his forces. Roldán responded that his barracks was surrounded by the workers' militias and that his own soldiers believed they were fighting to defend the Republic, not rebelling against it. At 14:45, Goded ordered his seaplanes to remain at the naval base, but he was swiftly informed by Captain
Carlos Lecuona Prat that the planes had already departed for
Mahón. Refusing to accept defeat, Goded telephoned Roldán again and ordered him to lead his forces to the artillery barracks in the port, where he was to rendezvous with a battery commanded by
José Fernández Unzué. Goded then telephoned Unzué himself and ordered him to send two batteries to the port, where they would rendezvous with Roldán's infantry. But Unzué responded that, when his two artillery batteries had left the barracks earlier that day, they were attacked by workers and Assault Guards and their artillery cannons were seized. He reported that they were now besieged in their barracks and had been under heavy fire since Roldán's reinforcements arrived. Goded lamented that his forces had been "abandoned", to which Llano responded "Defeated, Goded. It's not the same thing." Goded then ordered Lázaro to request reinforcements from
Palma and
Zaragoza, and to order troops in
Girona and
Mataró to march on Barcelona. Lázaro responded that the telegraph lines to the two Catalan cities had been cut, so Goded ordered an officer to go to Mataró and bring the troops back himself, but by that time the Captaincy General was already surrounded. Disarray immediately broke out among the officers in the besieged Captaincy General: some, including Burriel, began to treat Llano with more deference and sought to surrender; others wanted to kill Llano and continue fighting.
Final battles By this time, workers throughout the city had poured out into the streets upon learning of the coup's defeat. Cafes and restaurants reopened, serving refreshments to the militiamen on the barricades. CNT cars continued driving around the city, keeping the militias up to date on the state of the battle. Early in the afternoon, an FAI group from
Terrassa occupied the barracks in Pedralbes, renaming it to the "Bakunin barracks" and establishing a War Committee, which oversaw the establishment of organised workers' militias. As more barracks throughout the city fell under workers' control, military discipline collapsed and many soldiers joined the workers. Hundreds of rifles, machine guns and artillery cannons were seized, providing the militias with the arms necessary to finish off the uprising. during the July 1936 uprising in Barcelona, in the
Telefónica Building At 14:00, the Civil Guard finally intervened to pacify the remaining rebel holdouts. Antonio Escobar led the 19th Regiment up Via Laietana, while Commander
Antonio Sanz Neira positioned the Quartermaster Corps in between Plaça de Catalunya and Plaça de la Universitat to isolate the army groups. On Via Laietana, Escobar's 800 men passed by the Commission of Public Order, where Companys watched them from the balcony. Still suspicious of the Civil Guards, workers' militias kept them under close watch. But when the mounted Guards saluted the workers with
raised fists, they were cheered by the crowds. When the Civil Guard arrived in Plaça de Catalunya, a shootout began, as machine guns at the Hotel Colom fired on the column. Anarchist militants and the Civil Guard column attacked the Hotel, leading to the surrender of the troops inside after 30 minutes. On the other side of the Plaça, Durruti led an attack on the telephone exchange between and the
Portal de l'Àngel. Many anarchists died in the attack, including the Mexican anarchist
Enrique Obregón. After getting through the front door, fighting ensued inside the building. The CNT ultimately captured the telephone exchange and brought it under the control of a
workers' committee. In the confusion that followed the occupation of these buildings, the Civil Guard attempted to prevent workers from occupying the Hotel Colom. But
Josep Rovira, who had been leading the POUM's attack on the hotel since early in the morning, managed to force his way through and the POUM occupied the hotel. When soldiers at the university received news of the defeat on Plaça de Catalunya, they surrendered to the Civil Guard. Workers took the university and released the hostages who had been detained there, including
Syndicalist Party leader
Ángel Pestaña. Meanwhile, the Civil Guard at Plaça Urquinaona attacked the Ritz Hotel, recapturing it from the soldiers inside. By 15:00, only the Captaincy General, Carmelite Convent, Drassanes Barracks and Military Government were still under Nationalist control. In the Captaincy, Goded again attempted to appeal to Aranguren for the people to surrender, but Aranguren told him that his rebellion had been defeated and implored him to call a ceasefire. Finally, Aranguren warned Goded to surrender by 16:30, or else the Civil Guard artillery would commence bombardment of the Captaincy. When the deadline passed, Goded refused to surrender to the "mob" and the bombing commenced, exacerbating the disarray amongst the rebel officers. The artillery bombardment ultimately forced the officers to surrender. Without consulting Goded, Burriel informed the Catalan government that the Captaincy General had surrendered and he was instructed to raise the white flag. Antonio Sanz Neira, leading a squad of Assault Guards and Civil Guards, was dispatched to take those inside the Captaincy as prisoner. When they arrived, a machine gun fired at them. The apparent
false surrender enraged the gathered crowd, some of whom prepared to storm the building and lynch those inside, but they were prevented from doing so by their comrades. Goded himself was saved from being shot by
Caridad Mercader. The arrests went ahead as planned and Goded was taken to President Lluís Companys. Companys requested that Goded broadcast a ceasefire order over the radio. In his statement, Goded declared: "Fortune has not favored me and I am a prisoner. Therefore, if you want to avoid bloodshed, the soldiers loyal to me are free of all obligation". His surrender was broadcast throughout Spain, with rebels
under siege at the Montaña barracks hearing it from loudspeakers outside. Goded and other officers were later executed for their part in the Barcelona uprising.
Last holdouts Following the earlier capture of the Pedralbes barracks, several other military installations fell into the hands of the workers' militias. At 17:30, Alcántara barracks was taken, followed by Lepanto at 18:00, Montesa at 20:00, and the Port and Sant Andreu barracks at 00:00. Weapons from the latter were seized and distributed by the CNT. Naval mechanics also arrested the officers at the naval base. Machine guns on the Columbus Monument were attacked by Díaz Sandino's planes, allowing workers to overrun the army positions there. Soldiers in
Montjuïc Castle arrested their rebellious officers, freed their loyalist commander
Humberto Gil Cabrera, and handed their weapons over to the CNT. Soldiers' councils were formed at each of the barracks, while workers consolidated control over the city. By nightfall, Barcelona was firmly under
workers' control. The last rebel holdouts were surrounded and neighbourhood defense committees reorganised themselves into revolutionary committees, which took responsibility for all of Catalonia and sent out messengers and arms to other Catalan towns. Workers had already taken control of
Tarragona, and soldiers who had seized
Girona and
La Seu d'Urgell surrendered after they received news of the defeat in the Catalan capital. By the morning of the following day, the CNT and POUM had formed a revolutionary committee in
Lleida and taken control of the city. The Hotel Falcón in Barcelona became a meeting point for delegates sent by revolutionary committees throughout Catalonia. (left) shortly before his death in the attack on the
Drassanes barracks On 20 July, the workers' militias in Barcelona regrouped to coordinate a final assault on the last Nationalist holdouts in the city. The Carmelite Convent quickly surrendered and Escobar's Civil Guards arrested the occupants, but the battle intensified at the Drassanes barracks and the Military Government headquarters. During these final battles, Ramón Mola committed suicide. At the Teatre Principal, Durruti, Ascaso, Garcia Oliver, Ortiz and other anarchist leaders met to discuss how to finish off the last two holdouts. They settled on a plan to attach mattresses to a
technical, which had been outfitted the previous day by a
German anarchist group, and drive it towards the sites to clear the way for militants following behind.
Ricardo Sanz and Aurelio Fernández got into the truck and set off down La Rambla, where they came under fire from the Drassanes barracks and the Military Government headquarters. Durruti, Ascaso and Garcia Oliver followed it to the barracks and took shelter behind a wall, where they were exposed to a sentry box looking out at Carrer de Santa Madrona. Durruti gave the order to attack, shouting "
Adelante hombres de la CNT!" (). Ascaso quickly advanced towards the box, leaving his comrades behind, and took shelter behind a book stall. He then ran towards a truck, parked on Carrer de Montserrat, and was fired upon by the marksman in the sentry box. He fired back with his pistol and continued on to the truck, but he was shot in the head before he made it. Many others died during the attack, including an Assault Guard captain, four Civil Guards and numerous private citizens, among them a member of the Catalan parliament . Historian
Antony Beevor argued that many of the casualties during the final assault on the Drassanes barracks were unnecessary, as the anarchists could have used artillery and air support to cover them. He concluded that "the courage of that attack passed into anarchist folklore, obscuring the fact that dash and bravery are dangerous substitutes for military science". Not long after Ascaso's death, around 13:00, the soldiers inside the Drassanes barracks and the Military Government headquarters surrendered. With the last holdouts vanquished, the workers' militias declared victory over the military coup. The militias then set off up La Rambla, taking the captured officers to be detained at the Transport Workers' Union headquarters. When they passed a barricade, Durruti remarked that the
Spanish Revolution had only just started, and that it would not be over until every last rebel soldier in the country was defeated. Sporadic clashes continued to take place in the Catalan capital in the days after the defeat of the coup. When militiamen were shot at by people on the city's rooftops, CNT delegate advised them to conserve their ammunition by not firing back and to instead localise the place where the shots were fired from and search the building for the shooter. On 24 July, with the bulk of the fighting over, the CNT ordered its members to return to work. By the end of the battle, between 450 and 600 people had been killed. An additional 2,000 to 4,000 people were also wounded. Of the dead, 200 were workers fighting on the side of the Republic. ==Aftermath==