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| Barcelona at the time of the siege 1714 - Born is the district in the bottom right |
On a recent trip to Barcelona I accidentally stumbled across what I initially believed to be a Roman archaeological exhibition in the Born Market. The magnificent excavated ruins of complete buildings, streets and waterways are breathtaking.
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| A small portion of the 1,000 destroyed houses which lie below modern Barcelona |
As I read the display boards I noticed references in Spanish to the Bourbons, Habsburgs and 1714!
I quickly realised that I was looking at something much more recent than Roman remains!
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| The Siege of Barcelona 1714 book - the illustrations are rich and plentiful |
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| The Bourbon bombardment of Barcelona. |
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| Attacking into the breach - this is the area on which the new citadel was built after the war. |
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| Another of the book's many colour illustrations |
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| Catalan infantryman from the 1714 book |
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| More unifomr information from the 1714 book |
A return visit two days later revealed that what I was looking at was the ruin of the Born district of Barcelona which was destroyed on the orders of King Philip V after his storming of the city. The levelling was to enable the construction of an enormous citadel to guard the Spanish against the Catalans! This act seems to be the point d'appui for the huge animus prevalent in Catalonia towards Spain and Madrid. It serves as a rallying call for Catalan separatism and .. you guessed it, another connection to the political significance of our pet period in the modern world!
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| This book on the armies of Catalunya is extensively illustrated |
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| Els Exercits de Catalunya (1713-1714) |
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| Els Exercits de Catalunya (1713-1714) |
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| Els Exercits de Catalunya (1713-1714) |
I will feature pictures of the substantial excavation of 17th/18th century Barcelona in a subsequent post but here I want to share some extraordinarily high quality books on the Battle/Siege of Barcelona in 1714, Catalonian troops of the War of the Spanish Succession 1713/14 and uniform plates and prints of beautifully crafted artwork.
Three books are now in my possession; 1714 El setge de Barcelona, Els Exercits de Catalunya (1713-1714) and Born 1714 Memoria de Barcelona.
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| The book on the history of the Born district of the city and its role in the great siege |
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| From the Born book - inspiring the final Catalan resistance to the siege |
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| Beautiful plate of the last glorious charge against the Bourbons through Born |