Consequences of the War of the Spanish Succession

The story of 5,000 people in Barcelona forced to leave their homes

“Between 1717 and 1718, 17% of the city of Barcelona disappeared, something that meant greater damage that the war itself”. 

Artist Frederic Perers explains how he pays tribute to 73 families who had to leave their homes.

1. What will visitors find in the surroundings of the Born Market? Did you do this alone or with cooperation? How long will we be able to see "La Ribera Pays Homage to La Ribera"?

You will find seventy-three family names hanging from the balconies of the façades opposite the market, lineages of the seventy-three families that lived in the houses that were found in the archaeological site. They symbolically represent the five-thousand citizens who the Spanish Bourbon king's men forced to leave their homes because of the construction the Ciutadella military fortress. La Ribera Pays Tribute to La Ribera is a personal project completed together with the indispensable cooperation of the neighbours and it will be there until this weekend!

2. What happened exactly to those thousands of Catalans in La Ribera neighbourhood in 1714? What was the impact on the city?

In September 1714, at the end of the War of Succession, Barcelona was defeated and occupied by the French and Spanish troops. By virtue of the Nueva Planta decree, Philip V abolished the Catalan institutions and imposed the Spanish state organisation. However the repression of Catalonia's capital did not stop there. Once the war had ended, one of the primary objectives of the conqueror was to build two citadels with the purpose of controlling the locals and preventing any attempt at rebellion. 

The first one, that was to be located by the port, was never built. The second one was located on the northern side, close to the bastion of Santa Clara in the city walls, and it had terrible consequences for coastal neighbourhood, the Quarter de Mar. Started in 1716, the citadel required a lot of open space, free of any building, around it, which harmed the city more than the war itself. 

Between 1717 and 1718 the demolition took place to clear the area. In one fell swoop, many streets and several neighbourhoods were wiped out, and in two years 17% of the city of Barcelona disappeared. The owners, who in some cases had repaired the damage caused by the war on their homes, were dispossessed with no compensation and were forced to demolish their own properties. Around five thousand citizens —the same population as cities such as Vic or Girona at that time— had to leave their homes; 70% of them left for villages nearby. Once the area had been turned into an immense esplanade, it was not built on again until the end of the following century. In 1869 the terrains were given back to the city and afterwards architect Josep Fontserè projected the park, the market and the redevelopment of the area, giving the neighbourhood its current layout.

3. How did you come up with the idea to pay them homage?

At the end of 1999, I settled into an apartment in La Ribera street, almost opposite one of the side doors of the market. Inside, the excavations started in 2001, works that finally showed what the city of Barcelona was like at the beginning of the 18th century. From my balcony I was able to follow on a daily basis the evolution of the works that slowly showed the vestiges of the city before the Spanish occupation.

In 2003, on the Catalan National Day, the documentary “Born, a link to the past”, directed by Jordi Fortuny and Marina Pi, was broadcast on Catalan public television. As far as I remember, it was the first time I found out about the hard time the neighbourhood had to go through during the years ensuing the siege that took place between 1713-1714, and I saw the images of the barbarity and the drama that citizens had to go through.

In most cases my work starts at the scene of an event. This memorial for the citizens of La Ribera motivated me to find out more about their unfortunate stories. From the beginning, I had the idea of using their family names, but the only person who could provide them was the historian Albert Garcia Espuche, the person who best knows the story of this area of the city. Mr. Garcia Espuche had been working for years on the La Ciutat del Born, but this work did not see the light until 2009.

Once I got the names, I still had to confirm whether the neighbours were interested in the project. La Ribera Pays Tribute to La Ribera had to be postponed several times and finally, at the end of 2012, I decided to restart the project and finalised it during the first months of 2013, before the opening of the Born Cultural Centre.

4. Why the canvas on the balconies? Have you tries to encourage citizens' participation with it, or at least to involve the neighbours?

I like the idea of neighbours paying tribute to neighbours, that the people living in La Ribera are the main actors in this memorial and the main characters in the return to the neighbourhood of the names of those who were kicked out of it; the current neighbours of La Ribera are symbolically standing in solidarity with the neighbours of the old Ribera, only separated by time. A simple, calm, silent memorial, without any slogans.

And I specially like that the balconies, the most public part of a house, a private space, are being used as a support. The space where, without leaving home, the citizens can express their commitment individually, their demands and their collective joys. Balconies dressed with names, a direct, visible, doable and participative way to pay tribute.

5. What is the main objective?

On one hand, to remember those who were expelled from the neighbourhoods of Vilanova dels Molins de la Mar, La Fusina, the area of the Santa Clara convent, La Ribera itself, El Pla d’en Llull… neighbourhoods that simply disappeared, whose names are not familiar to Barcelona's current residents. Although it is difficult to believe, after three centuries the city still had to pay tribute to so many citizens who, after a cruel siege and because of foreign imposition, where kicked out of their homes.

On the other hand, the citizens that now live in the neighbourhood of La Ribera are aware that they live at ground zero of the 1714 events, on the exact location of the barbarity. Current inhabitants of La Ribera live in the houses that were built after the destruction of this part of Barcelona. Those events have to be in the collective memory of the neighbourhood and the country.

6. Do you think it is important to remember the events of 1714 and their consequences? Why?

Well... being wiped off the map by bombs is something terrible that we as a country did not want to forget. Our downturn starts with that defeat, but the tragic date is also the beginning of the difficult path towards our national fulfilment. It has required many generations to reach the point where we stand, right now, at the doors of our own State.

7. Do you see a connection between Catalans or the situation in Catalonia in 1714 and Catalonia nowadays?

In both cases we find ourselves at a crossroads, at a very important moment for the future of the country. The difference is basically the direction of the events. While 300 years ago Catalans lost their national freedom, now we have the opportunity to become the masters of our own future. The key point is that back then decisions were made thanks to violence and the strongest party always won. Nowadays decisions are made by majorities, which means that if we stay together we can be whatever we decide to be, regardless of whatever Spain or the rest of the world say.