From Bray to Bologna, I asked if Barcelona marks the beginning of the ‘Balkanisation’ of Spain

A walk on the beach in Bray as the October evenings close in (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I have had a head cold since Saturday night. Some men are tempted to call this ‘man ’flu,’ but I am not going to be so dramatic – yet.

But, despite feeling sorry for myself, and despite the grey autumn clouds that have been hanging over the south-west all weekend, I enjoyed travelling along the south shore of the Shannon Estuary, to and fro between Askeaton and Tarbert, on Sunday morning and afternoon.

Although I had no opportunity for a walk on the beach all last week or during the weekend, there opportunities for a walk along the banks of the River Shannon in Limerick on Thursday evening, despite the rain, and walks along the banks of the River Deel on Saturday with two visiting friends.

By the time I got to suburban south Dublin last night, I had given up hope of a weekend walk on the beach. But then, on a whim, two of us decided to go for dinner in Carpe Diem in Bray, Co Wicklow.

Dreaming of Bologna in Carpe Diem in Bray last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

It been three months almost since I had last eaten in this delightful little corner of authentic Italian cuisine, and the food, the wine, the coffee, the books lying around the place, and the sound of Italian voices in the background all whetted my appetite for a planned visit to Italy next month, when I hope to spend a few days in Bologna and Ravenna.

That double espresso was truly kicking in when we decided to go for a short walk on the beach in Bray. The lights had come, and there was a feeling that winter is around the corner, waiting patiently for the clocks to go back later this month.

A walk on the beach in Barcelona during Easter weekend in 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But as I walked along the beach in Bray in the fading lights of an October evening, a chill came through me as I recalled this weekend of all weekends some pleasant walks on the beach in Barcelona during Easter weekend last year.

I tend to be dismissive of nationalism of any shade, whether it is the claims of competing nationalisms in Northern Ireland, or the competing assertions of Spanish nationalism and Catalan self-determination.

But the images on news channels last night evoke memories of Franco’s fascism, which is not dead yet, and the long and sad, sorry story of the suppression of Catalan identity, depicted in George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. Indeed, Orwellian is an appropriate description of the response of the Madrid government.

It may be too early to ask whether we are seeing the beginning of the break-up of modern Spain. But this is not impossible, if we recall how Yugoslavia began to break-up in 1990. Could events in Barcelona mark the beginning of the Balkanisation of Spain?

If we saw these scenes in Venezuela, Myanmar or the West Bank, we would know this Spanish government is not behaving in way that is either civilised or acceptable according to international standards of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. It is certainly not a European way of responding to dissent.

If European governments fail to respond critically, we have to ask why we have learned so little from the lessons of history in Europe since the 1930s.

Spanish and Catalan flags flying side-by-side in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Sagrada Familia is a work in progress with another 10 years before completion

La Sagrada Família is Barcelona’s most famous building and Antoni Gaudí’s best-loved work (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

For more than four decades, Spanish culture and creativity were disrupted by military juntas in the 1920s, the civil war in the 1930s and the horrors of the Franco’s fascist regime that continued into the late 1970s. Yet, Spanish art, literature and architecture gave us some of the greatest works of the last century, with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, poets like Federico García Lorca, and writers like Víctor Alba.

Antoni Gaudí, Spain’s most celebrated architect, died 90 years ago on 10 June 1926

When Barcelona began to expand in the late 19th century, there a burst of fresh architectural energy in the Modernista movement, which broke with past styles. The leading light in this movement is Antoni Gaudí, whose work mixes traditional architectural styles with the new, and are a precursor to modern architecture. His most famous and best-loved work is the still-unfinished La Sagrada Família.

Other notable Catalan architects in Barcelona at the time includes Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, although their contribution to the Modernista movement is largely linked to Neo-Gothic works.

Sagrada Família has been under construction since 1882, and has been a controversial building since work first began. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Barcelona and in Spain and is regarded as Gaudí’s masterpiece.

Gaudí’s homage to Barcelona

Gaudí’s first project was designing lampposts in the Plaça Reial in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Like many of my generation, I was strongly influenced in my teenage years by George Orwell’s account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia. But when I was in Barcelona for an Easter city break, the Basilica of Sagrada Família was the one place I truly wanted to visit.

This towering church is often mistakenly identified as a cathedral. But Barcelona’s cathedral is a Gothic building dating from the 13th century, while Sagrada Família is a church without a parish, a basilica that is still being built and that is funded privately.

Sagrada Família was the inspiration of a Barcelona bookseller, Josep Maria Bocabella. Following a pilgrimage to Rome and Loreto, he founded the Asociación Espiritual de Devotos de San José (Spiritual Association of Devotees of Saint Joseph), and started raising funds to build a basilica in Barcelona’s new, expanding suburbs.

Gaudí changed the design of Sagrada Família completely, imbuing it with his own distinctive style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Francesc de Paula del Villar was appointed the architect when the first stone was laid in 1882. He planned a Gothic Revival church of cathedral proportions, but after many disagreements he resigned a year later in 1883, with only the apse crypt complete.

Bocabella then turned to Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) to complete the building. Gaudí was still only 30 and he was certainly an unusual choice at the time; yet he would become Spain’s most celebrated architect. No-one could hardly have realised that he would take the building project in such amazing directions … or that he would never live to see the work completed.

‘A fool or a genius’

Gaudí was born on 25 June 1852. The poor health he suffered as a child shaped his later reticent and reserved character, but also gave him time to study shape and form in nature.

He studied architecture at the Llotja School and the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture, graduating in 1878. His grades were average and he occasionally failed courses. When presenting him with his degree, the director of the school of architecture, Elies Rogent, said: “We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show.”

Gaudí’s first project was designing lampposts for the Plaça Reial in Barcelona. But his first important commission was the Casa Vicens. At the Paris World Fair in 1878, he impressed the Catalan industrialist Eusebi Güell, who commissioned some of Gaudí’s most outstanding work, including the Park Güell (Güell Park) and the crypt of the church of the Colònia Güel.

The Nativity Façade depicts the story of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, amid a chorus of angels (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

When Gaudí took over at Sagrada Família in 1883, he changed the design completely, imbuing it with his own distinctive style. By 1889, he had completed the crypt, ringed by a series of chapels, one of which would become his own burial place. In 1904, he put the final touches to the Nativity Façade depicting the story of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, amid a chorus of angels.

The ‘Tragic Week’ in 1909 had a profound impact on Gaudí’s work and personality. He had moved into a house in the Güell Park that had been built as a showcase property for the estate. Gaudí stayed there during the anti-clerical protests and attacks on churches and convents, fearing for the safety of the Sagrada Família.

However, the ‘Cathedral of the Poor’ escaped damage, and from 1915 on Gaudí devoted the rest of his life to Sagrada Família, which became a synthesis of all his architectural discoveries. He said: “My good friends are dead; I have no family and no clients, no fortune nor anything. Now I can dedicate myself entirely to the Church.”

Christ before Pilate … a scene on the Passion Façade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The first of the basilica’s 18 bell towers, soaring to a height of 100 metres, was completed in 1925. That year, he moved from his house in the Güell Park into Sagrada Família, and lived inside the workshop of the basilica that was now his all-consuming project.

Gaudí lived in a house at Park Güell until he moved into Sagrada Família (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

On 7 June 1926, Gaudí was taking his daily walk to the Church of Sant Felip Neri for his daily prayers and confession. As he walked along the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, he was struck by a passing tram. With his shabby clothes and appearance, he was mistaken for a beggar and was left unconscious on the side of the street.

Eventually, a police officer called a taxi and took him to the Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau – another Modernista building, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. But Gaudí received only basic care. By the time that the chaplain of the Sagrada Família, Father Mosén Gil Parés, recognised him the following day, Gaudí’s condition had deteriorated severely. He died 90 years ago on 10 June 1926 at the age of 73, and he was buried two days later in the crypt of Sagrada Família.

Beyond classification

Gaudí conceived the interior of Sagrada Família as if it were a forest, with a set of tree-like columns divided into branches to support a structure of inter-twined vaults (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Gaudí is regarded as the great master of Catalan Modernism, but his work goes beyond any one style or classification. His place in the history of architecture is that of a creative genius inspired by nature. He developed a style that attained technical perfection and high aesthetic value, and that bore the mark of his character.

His study of nature translated into his use of ruled geometrical forms, and at an early stage he was also inspired by oriental arts from India, Persia and Japan. He was also influenced by Walter Pater, John Ruskin and William Morris, key figures in the Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts movements in England.

Gaudí’s place in the history of architecture is that of a creative genius inspired by nature (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Gaudí conceived the interior of Sagrada Família as if it were a forest, with a set of tree-like columns divided into branches to support a structure of inter-twined vaults. He inclined the columns so they could better resist perpendicular pressure on their section. He also gave them a double-turn helicoidal shape (right turn and left turn), as in the branches and trunks of trees. This new technique allowed him to achieve his great architectural goal of perfecting and going beyond Gothic style.

Gaudí’s first works included a set of lampposts for the Plaça Reial in Barcelona. In 1883-1888, he built the Casa Vicens for the stockbroker Manuel Vicens i Montaner.

The entrance buildings at the Park Güell show Gaudí at the height of his creativity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

At the beginning of the 20th century, his main new project was the Park Güell (1900-1914). This garden complex on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district was planned as a residential estate in the style of an English garden city. The project was unsuccessful – of the 60 plots the site was divided into, only one was sold. But the park entrances and service areas display Gaudí’s genius and put into practice many of his innovative structural solutions.

The dragon has become a symbol of the Park Güell and one of Gaudí’s most recognised emblems (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The main entrance to the park has a building on each side, planned as a porter’s lodge and an office, and the site is surrounded by a stone and glazed-ceramic wall. These entrance buildings show Gaudí at the height of his creativity, and the dragon fountain has become a symbol of the park and one of Gaudí’s most recognised emblems.

The Casa Batlló is one of Gaudí’s largest and most striking works … the façade has warped ruled surfaces, the columns are bone-shaped with vegetable decoration and the balconies have iron railings in the shape of masks (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

One of Gaudí’s largest and most striking works is the Casa Batlló (1904-1906). He was commissioned by Josep Batlló i Casanovas to renovate a house first built in 1875 by Emili Sala Cortés. Gaudí focused on the façade, the main floor, the patio and the roof, and built a fifth floor for the staff. The facade is of Montjuïc sandstone cut to create warped ruled surfaces; the columns are bone-shaped with vegetable decoration.

Gaudí kept the rectangular shape of the balconies – with iron railings in the shape of masks – giving the rest of the façade an ascending undulating form. He also faced the facade with ceramic fragments of various colours (trencadís), which Gaudí obtained from the waste material of the Pelegrí glass works.

His chimneys are a prominent feature on the roof, topped with conical caps, covered in clear glass in the centre and ceramics and a cylindrical turret with anagrams of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and Gaudí’s trademark four-armed cross.

The façade of La Pedrera is built of limestone and covered in white tiles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

However, his second most popular building in Barcelona is his Casa Milà or La Pedrera, built in 1906-1910 at Passeig de Gràcia Avenue for Pere Milà i Camps. Gaudí designed the house around two large, curved courtyards, with a structure of stone, brick and cast-iron columns and steel beams. The façade is built of limestone, apart from the upper level, which is covered in white tiles, evoking a snowy mountain. It has a total of five floors, plus a loft made entirely of catenary arches, as well as two large interior courtyards, one circular and one oval.

The features include the staircases to the roof, topped with his four-armed cross, and the chimneys, covered in ceramics and with shapes that suggest mediaeval helmets.

The roof of La Pedrera is topped with Gaudí’s four-armed cross, and the shapes suggest mediaeval helmets (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

A work in progress

The Santa Creu Hospital where Gaudí died was another Modernista building, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Work on Sagrada Família has been going on for over 130 years. Josep Maria Subirachs, who took over from Gaudí, completed the Passion Façade, which draws both criticism and praise for its angular, severe and striking sculptures.

The nave was finally completed on 31 December 2000. But Sagrada Família is not expected to be completed for another 10 years – in 2026, which marks the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death.

Gaudí left a deep mark on 20th-century architecture. His admirers include Le Corbusier, and he has inspired many architects, including Santiago Calatrava and Frei Otto. A devout Catholic, his death before the Spanish Civil War means all Catalans and Spaniards are proud of his legacy. In 2003, the Vatican opened the beatification process which puts him on the road towards being canonised a saint.

Work continues on La Sagrada Família … which is expected to be completed in 2026 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. his feature was first published in June 2016 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).

Barcelona, an old city that lives as if its Europe’s newest capital

A colourful balcony in the heart of the old city (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Barcelona is the 20th most visited city in the world and is high on the list of the 10 most visited cities in Europe. But I visited it for the first time only a few weeks ago.

I wanted to see the Good Friday processions and to join the Easter celebrations. But this was also an opportunity to enjoy a city with cultural roots that stretch back over 2,000 years, with Greek and Roman remains, one of the finest legacies in Europe of Gothic architecture, and some of the greatest works in modern architecture. And there were opportunities too for walks on the beach in warm sunshine, although it was still a cold Spring back home.

Barcelona is Spain’s second city and the capital of Catalonia. Barcelona has a population of 1.6 million, and greater Barcelona has a population of 4.7 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in the Mediterranean and Europe’s seventh largest city.

The Gothic splendour of Barcelona Cathedral dates from the 13th to 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

With a rich cultural heritage, Barcelona is an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination. This is one of the richest and most economically powerful cities in the EU. It has its own stock exchange with the Borsa de Barcelona, the city hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics and it is home to FC Barcelona, one of the most popular football clubs in the world.

It is no surprise then to learn that Barcelona is an international transport centre, with a busy seaport and airports, and one of the world’s leading centres for tourism, finance, fashion, sport, trade and culture.

Roman roots, Gothic heritage

Roman walls and towers in the centre of the old city (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The name Barcelona comes from the ancient Iberian Barkeno, and the place was known in the Classical world as Βαρκινών (Barkinṓn) in Greek and Barcino, Barcilonum and Barcenona in Latin.

Legend says the city was founded by Hercules. Some writers suggest the city takes its name Hamilcar Barca, a general from Carthage and father of Hannibal. Hamilcar Barba is said to have founded the city in the 3rd century BC.

But, legend apart, Barcelona was founded as a Roman city. The place had an excellent harbour, and in 15 BC the Romans established a military camp on a hill at the present day Plaça de Sant Jaume, where the city hall now stands. The Roman camp grew into a colony known as Faventia, or Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino, or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino.

The Roman grid plan can be seen in the layout of the historical centre, the Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter, where I was staying. Fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral, which was founded in 343.

Ramon Berenguer III the Great was Count of Barcelona (1086-1131) and his reign unified much of Catalonia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early fifth century, and for a few years was the capital of Hispania. It was taken by the Arabs in the early eighth century. It was conquered in 801 by Charlemagne’s son Louis, who made Barcelona the seat of the Hispanic March, a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona. The city was sacked by the army of al-Mansur (Almanzor) in 985. It was a traumatic assault in which most of Barcelona’s population was either killed or enslaved.

Political rise and fall

Barcelona has a rich heritage of museums, palaces and churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In the Middle Ages, Barcelona an important city in the Kingdom of Aragon. The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all Catalonia.

In 1137, Aragon and the County of Barcelona were merged in a dynastic union with the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla of Aragon. Aragon went on to conquer many overseas territories and to rule the western Mediterranean. By the 13th century, Aragon’s territories included the Balearic Islands, Naples, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta and for a while Athens and parts of Greece (until 1388) and Southern Italy (from 1442).

Many buildings in the Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter of the old city date from mediaeval times (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Bank of Barcelona may be the oldest public bank in Europe. It was established in 1401 and predates the Bank of Venice (1402) and the Bank of Genoa (1407). The University of Barcelona dates from 1450 and has campuses around the city.

The Columbus Monument (Monument a Colom) – a 60 metre high seafront monument at the lower end of La Rambla – was erected in 1888. It is a reminder that after his first journey to the new continent in 1492, Christopher Columbus reported to Queen Isabel of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon in Barcelona on 15 March 1493.

Plaça de Sant Juame, the political heart of Barcelona, occupies the site of the Roman Forum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabel made Madrid the centre of political power in a new Spain, and the political and economic decline of Barcelona had started to set it. In the 17th century, Barcelona was at the centre of the rise of Catalan separatism, but the great plague in the 1650s halved the city’s population. Barcelona suffered again during the Napoleonic wars, but industrialisation revived the fortunes of the city and of Catalonia.

During the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona and Catalonia were strongly Republican and their resistance to Franco is chronicled by George Orwell in his Homage to Catalonia. The fall of the city on 26 January 1939 caused a mass exodus of civilians who fled to the French border. Catalonia’s autonomy was abolished, but the Catalan language was suppressed. But, despite the devastation of the civil war, Barcelona remained relatively prosperous and experienced rapid urbanisation.

Parks, beaches and squares

Barcelona’s beaches, close to the centre of the city, are among the world’s top ten (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Barcelona has a great number of museums, parks and beaches. In all, there are 68 municipal parks: 12 historic parks, five thematic parks, 45 urban parks and six forest parks. Barcelona also has seven beaches along 4.5 km of coastline, close to the Olympic Harbour. The beaches are listed as the No 1 beach in a list of the top 10 city beaches in the world.

I was staying the Hotel Suizo in the Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter in the centre of the old city, where many of the buildings date from mediaeval times, and some even to Roman times.

The Columbus Monument, erected in 1888, is a reminder that Christopher Columbus was welcomed back to Spain by Ferdinand and Isabel in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

I was just two or three minutes’ walk from Barcelona’s great Gothic Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. It dates back to 343, and some claim it stands on the site of an earlier Roman temple. The present cathedral was built in the 13th to 15th centuries, with the main work carried out in the 14th century.

Barcelona cathedral gargoyles – human, animal and mythical – gaze down on passers-by (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The choir stalls display the coats-of-arms of the knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, whose Spanish chapter meet here. The roof is known for its gargoyles, depicting a wide range of domestic and mythical animals. The cloisters, which were completed in 1448, encloses the Well of the Geese. The neo-Gothic façade was completed in the late 19th century.

A flock of 13 white geese has permanent sanctuary in the cloisters of Barcelona Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Despite several changes in the 19th and 20th centuries, many of the buildings in the Barri Gòtic date back to the Middle Ages and some back to the Roman period. There is a labyrinthine street plan, with many small streets and alleys and cobblestone squares.

Beside the cathedral, in Plaça del Rei, the Palau Reial dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and is an example of Catalan Gothic. Before Spain was united this was the Royal Palace of the Kings of Aragon, and it was here that Ferdinand and Isabel welcomed Columbus back to Spain in 1493.

Plaça de Sant Juame is the political heart of Barcelona. The open cobbled square marks the site of the Forum in Roman Barcino. Today it is flanked by the Ajuntament or City Hall on one side, and the Palau de la Generalitat or the seat of the Catalan Government on the other side. Barcelona is the capital of autonomous Catalonia, with its own government, executive, parliament and Supreme Court.

In the Jewish Quarter

In a narrow side street in the Call, once the heart of Jewish Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The square leads into El Call, which was the mediaeval Jewish quarter of Barcelona from the 12th century. The name means “narrow street” or “lane” but was used for the whole area. Carrer de Sant Domènec was the main street of the Call and included the Great Synagogue and the houses of the most prominent members of the Jewish community.

When the Call was attacked in 1391, 300 Jewish residents were murdered. The Call never recovered from that terrible episode. The Church of Sant Jaume on Calle Ferran stands on the site of what was the old synagogue of Barcelona. Some Jews continued to live in Barcelona, although in fewer numbers, but they were all expelled 100 years later under decrees issued by Ferdinand and Isabel.

Although Ferdinand and Isabel expelled Jews and Muslims from Spain, Barcelona Province now has the largest Islamic community in Spain today, with 322,698 Muslims in Barcelona, and the city has the largest Jewish community in Spain, with about 3,500 Jewish residents.

Heritage and the future

13, Some of the Gothic architecture of Barcelona has been restored in the last century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Today, Catalonia is one of the richest regions in Europe, with a GDP per capita that is far higher than the EU average, and Barcelona is the fourth most economically powerful city in the European Union and 35th in the world.

Barcelona is also known for the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Catalan modernista architecture developed from 1885 to 1950 and several of these buildings are World Heritage Sites. The work of the Antoni Gaudí includes the unfinished Basilica of the Sagrada Família, which is expected to be completed in 2026.

The Torre Agbar, a 38-storey skyscraper tower, is a landmark modern building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Barcelona won the 1999 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for its architecture, the first and only time that a city has been the winner and not an individual architect. One of the landmark contemporary buildings is the Torre Agbar, a 38-storey skyscraper tower in the Poblenou neighbourhood, was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and cost €130 million to build.

The Catalan language was repressed under Franco’s dictatorship. But since the arrival of democracy, works from the past have been recovered and Catalan is enjoying a revival. While Spanish is the most spoken language, there is an increasing and noticeable use of Catalan, which is understood by almost everyone.

Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s masterpiece, is expected to be completed in 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Recently [9 November 2015], the Catalan parliament approved a plan for secession from Spain by 2017 in a vote 72-63 vote. The plan was suspended by the Constitutional Court, but Catalonia remains culturally distinctive and proud, and Barcelona feels like a cultural capital.

This cultural and political confidence was palpable on Sunday as a stood outside the cathedral on Sunday afternoon and watched the distinctive Catalan national dance, the sardana, performed by hundreds of people in the Plaça de la Seu or the cathedral square.

Who can predict whether Barcelona is going to become the capital of Europe’s newest nation state? I hope to return, but meanwhile next month I plan to take another look at the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner in Barcelona.

The Catalan national dance, the sardana, is performed by hundreds of people in the Plaça de la Seu every Sunday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Canon Patrick Comerford lectures in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This feature was first published in May 2016 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory)

(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Annunciation: ‘this doubtful day Of feast or fast, Christ came and went away’

The Annunciation depicted on the Nativity Façade of the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

The Church of Ireland Theological Institute,

4 April 2016,

The Annunciation of our Lord (transferred)

5 p.m., The Eucharist

Readings: Isaiah 7: 10-14; Psalm 40: 5-10; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38.

In the name of + the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This year, Good Friday fell on 25 March, which is ordinarily the Feast of the Annunciation. This symbolically rich concurrence is relatively rare. It occurred only three times in the 20th century (1910, 1921, and 1932), and twice in this century (2005 and 2016). It will not occur again for almost a century and a half, not until 2157 – although, if the date of Easter is fixed by then, it will never happen again.

Today, the Church deals with this rare coincidence by transferring the feast of the Annunciation to the first Monday in the week after Easter Week.

But in the past, when this coincidence occurred, it was seen to be profoundly meaningful. The date of the feast of the Annunciation was chosen to match the supposed historical date of the Crucifixion, as deduced from the Gospels, to underline the idea that Christ came into the world on the same day that he left it: his life formed a perfect circle. In other words, 25 March was both the first and the last day of his earthly life, the beginning and the completion of his work on earth.

Saint Augustine of Hippo explained it this way:

He is believed to have been conceived on 25 March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived … corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried …

Both events were understood to have happened in the spring, when life returns to the earth, and at the vernal equinox, once the days begin to grow longer than the nights and light triumphs over the power of darkness. Tolkien fans among us this evening know that the final destruction of the Ring takes place on 25 March, to align Tolkien’s own “eucatastrophe” with this most powerful of dates.

The early historian, the Venerable Bede, says this dating is symbolic but it is not only a symbol; it reveals the deep relationship between Christ’s death and all the created world, including the sun, the moon and everything on earth.

The Annunciation and the Crucifixion are often paired together in mediaeval art. This pairing inspired the development of a distinctive and beautiful image found almost uniquely in English mediaeval art: the lily crucifix – on painted screens, stained glass windows, carvings on stone tombs, misericords, wall-paintings and the painted ceiling of cathedrals, churches and chapels.

The link between the Annunciation and the Crucifixion brings together in one circle the beginning and the end of Mary’s motherhood, its joy and its sorrow, as well as completing the circle of Christ’s life on earth.

When Good Friday fell on 25 March 1608, too, John Donne marked this paradoxical conjunction of “feast and fast,” falling “some times and seldom,” with a well-known poem in which he draws on the same parallels found in those mediaeval texts and images.

I was acutely aware of these coincidences during my visit to Barcelona for Good Friday and Easter weekend.

One of the most beautiful works of architecture in Barcelona – indeed, one of the most beautiful churches in the world – is the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia, built from 1894, but not expected to be completed until 2026. The basilica designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) has two façades. The Nativity Façade depicts scenes from Christ’s birth and early life, including the Annunciation and the Incarnation.

On the opposite side, the Passion Façade includes carvings of scenes from the trial, passion and crucifixion of Christ. In a very moving way, Gaudí brings together the Annunciation and the Crucifixion.

But perhaps more movingly this link was emphasised in the street processions through the narrow streets of Barcelona on the evening of Good Friday. One float we followed had a life-sized effigy of the Pieta. The weeping Mary was bearing on her lap the body of the Crucified Christ who had been taken down from the Cross.

In that moment of searing sorrow, she must have wondered: Is this what it was all for, is this the end? Without the benefit of foresight, she could not have known the Easter story.

In her womb she has carried the Christ Child. Now she cradles the Crucified Christ on her lap. The lap on which he had once played is now the lap on which his limp and lifeless body lies dead.

Was this the journey – from the Annunciation on 25 March to the Crucifixion on 25 March?

But Mary’s yes was to all this: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1: 38).

Yet, all of this, birth and death, annunciation and crucifixion, remain perplexing, find no explanation without Resurrection. As the Apostle Paul puts it: “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (I Corinthians 15: 14). And again: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (I Corinthians 15: 17-19).

Mary’s yes at the Annunciation is her yes, is our yes, is the yes of humanity and of creation, not only to the Incarnation, but to the Crucifixion, and to the Resurrection.

And it is so important, so powerful, so central, that we should not forget it when Good Friday falls on 25 March, and that we should remember and celebrate that yes today.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

A float in the Good Friday procession in Barcelona on 25 March 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Collect:

Pour your grace into our hearts, Lord,
that as we have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ
by the message of an angel,
so by his cross and passion
we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Post Communion Prayer:

God Most High,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
We thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power.
May we like Mary be joyful in our obedience,
and so bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ have mercy.
Christ have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us is given:
and his name is called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 7)

Preface:

You chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son
and so exalted humble and meek;
your angel hailed her as most highly favoured,
and with all generations we call her blessed.

Blessing:

Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill you with his grace
to trust his promises and obey his will:

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This reflection was shared at the Eucharist in the institute chapel on 4 April 2016.

John Donne, ‘Upon the Annunciation and Passion Falling upon One Day’ (1608)

Tamely, frail body, abstain today; today
My soul eats twice, Christ hither and away.
She sees Him man, so like God made in this,
That of them both a circle emblem is,
Whose first and last concur; this doubtful day
Of feast or fast, Christ came and went away;
She sees Him nothing twice at once, who’s all;
She sees a Cedar plant itself and fall,
Her Maker put to making, and the head
Of life at once not yet alive yet dead;
She sees at once the virgin mother stay
Reclused at home, public at Golgotha;
Sad and rejoiced she’s seen at once, and seen
At almost fifty and at scarce fifteen;
At once a Son is promised her, and gone;
Gabriel gives Christ to her, He her to John;
Not fully a mother, she’s in orbity,
At once receiver and the legacy;
All this, and all between, this day hath shown,
The abridgement of Christ’s story, which makes one
(As in plain maps, the furthest west is east)
Of the Angels’ Ave and Consummatum est.
How well the Church, God’s court of faculties,
Deals in some times and seldom joining these!
As by the self-fixed Pole we never do
Direct our course, but the next star thereto,
Which shows where the other is and which we say
(Because it strays not far) doth never stray,
So God by His Church, nearest to Him, we know
And stand firm, if we by her motion go;
His Spirit, as His fiery pillar doth
Lead, and His Church, as cloud, to one end both.
This Church, by letting these days join, hath shown
Death and conception in mankind is one:
Or ’twas in Him the same humility
That He would be a man and leave to be:
Or as creation He had made, as God,
With the last judgment but one period,
His imitating Spouse would join in one
Manhood’s extremes: He shall come, He is gone:
Or as though the least of His pains, deeds, or words,
Would busy a life, she all this day affords;
This treasure then, in gross, my soul uplay,
And in my life retail it every day.

The ‘Bridge of Sighs’ in Barcelona: is it Gothic heritage or architectural imitation?

‘The Bridge of Sighs’ in Barcelona … neo-gothic architecture in the narrow streets of the old city in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

When I was writing about Josefina de Comerford yesterday and her revolutionary or fanatical adventures in 19th century Barcelona, I used a photograph I had taken earlier this week of a neo-gothic bridge in the old Gothic Quarter of the city.

This is Barcelona’s own “Bridge of Sighs” and the Pont dels Sospirs is a popular subject for postcards in Barcelona, bridging Carrer Bisbe (the Street of the Bishop) and with gothic gargoyles on either side looking down on the people thronging this narrow street.

Although it is not original gothic bridge, it is similar to the Gothic bridges built in Barcelona in the 15th century. It is modelled on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, and has become one of the most photographed bridges in Barcelona.

The Bridge of Sighs, Venice ... received its name from Lord Byron in 1812 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In Venice, the original Bridge of Sighs is an enclosed bridge built of white limestone, with two pairs of small, rectangular windows with stone bars. It is 11 metres wide and crosses the Rio di Palazzo, linking the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. It was built in 1600-1602, was designed by Antoni Contino, whose uncle Antonio da Ponte designed the equally famed Rialto Bridge.

Legend says convicted prisoners snatched their last sight of Venice from the Bridge of Sighs, sighing at the scene through the windows before being taken to cells, or sighing stifled claims to innocence. It was never known as the Bridge of Sighs to Venetians – or to anyone else – until the poet Lord Byron named it so in 1812 in his epic poem Childe Harold.

Since Byron’s poem was published, the Bridge of Sighs in Venice has inspired or given its name to similar bridges in Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin and Barcelona.

Punters under the Bridge of Sighs at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge, built in 1831, is a covered bridge in Saint John’s College. It was designed by Henry Hutchinson and crosses the River Cam, linking the college’s Third Court and New Court.

Although it is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and both are covered, the two have little in common architecturally. Queen Victoria is said to have loved the bridge more than any other place in Cambridge, and the bridge is now one of the main tourist attractions there.

The bridge linking Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and the former Synod Hall was part of George Street’s restoration work in the 1870s.(Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The charming covered bridge linking Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and the former Synod Hall was built in 1875 during the George Edmund Street’s restoration of the cathedral. At an early stage in his career, Street was influenced by Ruskin and The Stones of Venice.

This bridge has been compared with the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and the bridges in Cambridge and Oxford. Roger Stalley says it is Street’s “final touch of genius” in the restoration of the cathedral.

The Bridge of Sighs at Hertford College, Oxford ... celebrated its centenary two years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The bridges in Venice, Cambridge and Dublin long pre-date Hertford Bridge in Oxford, which is also known popularly as the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge, linking two parts of Hertford College over New College Lane, is a distinctive landmark in Oxford.

The bridge is often called the Bridge of Sighs because it is supposedly similar to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. However, Hertford Bridge was never intended to be a replica of the Venetian bridge, and it too has a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge. The bridge was built after the site on the north side was acquired by Hertford College in 1898 and was designed by Sir Thomas Jackson. The proposals for the bridge were strongly opposed, particularly by neighbouring New College, but despite those objections it was completed in 1913-1914.

It features in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and today is one of the most photographed and visited sights in Oxford, partly because it is so close to the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera.

The neo-gothic Pont dels Sospirs in Barcelona is modelled on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. It connects the eastern wall of the Palau de la Generalitat, the seat of provincial government, and the western wall of Casa del Canonges, or the House of Canons of Barcelona Cathedral.

In the past, there were many similar bridges along Carrer del Bisbe but they have been destroyed. These bridges were built so that Barcelona’s civic and ecclesiastic elite could travel between official buildings without interacting with the citizens and so they could avoid any physical contact with the people below.

After other similar bridges had been destroyed in Barcelona, Pont dels Sospirs was rebuilt in the 20th century. The Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter was transformed from a sombre neighbourhood to a tourist attraction through during a major massive restoration project in advance of the 1929 International Exhibition, and the Pont dels Sospirs was built by Joan Rubió in 1928.

Below the bridge today, buskers and street musicians who add to the mystery and charm of this corner. The bridge is now a “must-see” place in Barcelona, and many tourists go home believing it is part of the city’s architectural heritage from the Middle Ages.

Tourists throng the narrow street beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Doña Josefina de Comerford: femme fatale, fanatic or defamed heroine in Barcelona?

Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca de Sales de Comerford (Josefina de Comerford) has been the subject of many Spanish historical novels and semi-biographical studies, portraying her as either a fanatic or a defamed heroine

Patrick Comerford

Barcelona was one of the cities of choice for exiled Irish political and military leaders in the 17th and 18th centuries.

But even before the ‘Wild Geese’ fled in large numbers to Spain and France after the defeat of the Jacobite forces and the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, prominent Irish exiles found refuge in Barcelona.

Gerald FitzGerald, the 16th and last Earl of Desmond, forfeited the largest estate any individual in Ireland ever possessed. He and his wife Eleanor Butler, daughter of Edmund Butler, Lord Dunboyne, were the parents of one son and two daughters.

However, when their only son, James, died in the Tower of London in 1601, the representation of this branch of the FitzGerald family passed to his nephew, John FitzGerald, who married the daughter of Richard Comerford, of Danganmore Castle, Co Kilkenny.

He went into exile in Spain in 1603. Although he was de jure the 17th Earl of Desmond, he never used the title, and instead he was known in Spain as the Conde de Desmond.

John and his Comerford wife were still living in in Barcelona in 1615, and they had an only son Gerald before he died in Barcelona. However, this son, Gerald FitzGerald, Conde de Desmond, felt the small pension he received from the King of Spain did not reflect or honour his dignity and rank as the heir of Desmond. He left Spain abruptly, joined the German imperial army and died of starvation during a military siege in 1632.

Gerald had no children, and with him the direct male line of the Desmond FitzGeralds came to an end.

A statue of Saint George on the façade of City Hall in Plaça Sant Jaume, Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The decline of this branch of the FitzGeralds of Desmond and their kinship with the Comerford family came to mind while I was in Barcelona last weekend [25-28 March 2016]. I was also aware of the story of John Comerford, an Irish general who moved to Barcelona with the ‘Wild Geese.’ But as I explored his story I also came across the extraordinary story of his grand-daughter, Josefina de Comerford, who became involved in Spanish political intrigues in the early 19th century.

She was given the title of Condesa de Sales and has become the subject of Spanish biographical studies – even before her death she inspired romantic semi-fictional biographies. To this day, her legacy has divided Spanish historians, who have seen her as a fanatic, an extremist, a romantic heroine, a femme fatale or an early feminist.

On 1 November 1709, King Philip V of Spain decided to collect all the Irish units into one brigade. The regiments included the Ultonia or Ulster Regiment under the command of Dermot MacAuliffe, who had fought against the Williamite forces at the siege of Cork, the Hibernia Regiment, commanded by Lord Castlebar, the Irlanda Regiment, commanded by John Wauchope, the Limerick Regiment, commanded by the Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duc de Vendome (1654-1712), and the Waterford Regiment commanded by Colonel John Comerford, also known as Don John de Comerford.

During the Wars of Spanish Succession, the new Irish Brigade fought at the Battle of Saragossa, the Siege of Barcelona (1710), the capture of Palma, in Majorca (1711), and in the Spanish attack on Sicily (1718).

John Comerford (ca 1665-1725), was born in Finlough in Loghkeen, Co Tipperary, and was a member of one of the Callan branches of the Comerford family in Co Kilkenny. He was sworn a freeman of the City of Waterford on 23 August 1686, and during the Jacobite Wars he was an ensign in the Jacobite Bagnall’s Regiment of Foot alongside his brother Henry.

By 1709, he was the colonel of the Regiment de Waterford in the Spanish army. Later, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General and knighted by the King of Spain. He died in Badajoz on 18 May 1725. His widow, Henrietta O’Neill, died in Madrid in 1747. Her first husband was another Irish exile in Spain, Colonel Henry O’Beirne, an Irish colonel in the Spanish army.

Henrietta Comerford was a daughter of Henry O’Neill of Eden, Co Antrim, and his wife, Sarah O’Neill, of Shane’s Castle. Henrietta Comerford’s brother, John O’Neill, was the father-in-law of Richard Butler, 7th Viscount Mountgarret, and was the grandfather of Lord O’Neill, who was killed at the Battle of Antrim in 1798.

Henrietta Comerford and her first husband were the parents of Maria Therese O’Beirne (died 1777), Maid of Honour to the Queen of Spain. In 1726, she married the attainted Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 2nd Duke of Wharton, Marquess of Catherlough, Earl of Rathfarnham and Baron Trim. The Duke of Wharton inherited Rathfarnham Castle, Knocklyon Castle and other estates in south Co Dublin through his mother, Lucy Loftus of Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford. Three years before he married John Comerford’s step-daughter, Wharton sold these estates in 1723 to Sir William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, for £62,000.

A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine later referred to the Duchess of Wharton’s step-father, John Comerford, as her father, and in her will she referred to her half-brother, Joseph Comerford, as “my deceased brother Comerford.”

John and Henrietta Comerford were the parents of one son and four daughters:

1, Joseph John Comerford (1719-post 1777), also known as ‘Don Joseph de Comerford’.
2, Elinor, who also married into the O’Beirne family. She was living with her half-sister, the Duchess of Wharton, at her house in Golden Square, London, when she died in 1777. She was the mother of three daughters.
3, Frances (Doña Francisca) Magdalene.
4, Dorothea, who appears to have been dead by 1777, when her half-sister, the Duchess of Wharton, died in London.

The only son of John and Henrietta Comerford was:

Joseph John Comerford (1719-post 1777), also known as ‘Don Joseph de Comerford’. He was born in 1719 in Barcelona. He was a Knight of the Order of Calatranta, and was living in 1744. He married Maria Magdalena de Sales, Madame de Sales, a widow sometimes described as Marquesa de Sales. Doña Maria Magdalena de Sales, Marquesa de Sales, was a native of Annecy in the Duchy of Savoy, and a member of the same family as Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva. Don Joseph de Comerford was still living in 1777 when his half-sister, the Duchess of Wharton, died in London.

Joseph and Maria Comerford were the parents of two sons:

● 1 (Major) Francisco Comerford (ca 1749?-1808).
● 2, Enrique Comerfort, Conde de Bryas
.
The eldest son:

(Major) Francisco Comerford (ca 1749?-1808). He was a godfather or sponsor at the baptism of Carlos O’Donnell y Anethan, father of Leopoldo O’Donnell y Jorris (1809-1867), the first Duke of Tetuan, and Spanish Minister of War, and grandfather of Carlos O’Donnell y Alvarez de Abreu (1834-1903), the second Duke of Tetuan and Spanish Foreign Minister.

Francisco Comerford proved the will of his aunt, the Duchess of Wharton, in 1777.

He was a major in his grandfather’s Regiment of Ireland. He was stationed in Tarifa, next to Gibraltar, with his regiment, and in 1805 he was an eyewitness of the Battle of Trafalgar.

He married Maria MacCrohon, and he died in 1808. They were the parents of one daughter:

1, (Doña) Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales (‘Josefina’ de Comerford) (1794-1865).

His younger brother was Enrique Comerfort, Conde de Bryas. He wife was Juana Francisca de Comerford y Sales. Following the French invasion of Spain, he resigned his army commission and left for Dublin, bringing his 11-year-old orphaned niece and god-daughter Josefina with him. Later, he attended the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and died soon after.

The Palace of the Generalitat or Regional Government Building in Plaça Sant Jaume, Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

His niece, Doña Josefa Eugenia Maria Francisca Comerford MacCrohon de Sales (1794-1865), is known in Spanish history and in popular folklore as Josefina de Comerford.

She was born in 1794 in Ceuta, a Spanish outpost in North Africa, and she was baptised on 26 December 1794 in the Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Ceuta. Her father soon moved to Tarifa, because he preferred that city to Ceuta, which was a prison colony. When her parents died, she was adopted as an 11-year-old by her uncle Enrique Comerford, Conde de Bryas, and she moved with him to Dublin, where she appears to have been brought up in luxury and in a wide social circle.

She was in Vienna with her uncle when he attended the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Enrique Comerford died soon after, and she then moved to Rome at the suggestion of her Irish and Spanish family and friends.

When she returned to Spain in 1820, she became involved in the ultra-royalist side in the political wars of the 1820s and 1830s. In Barcelona, she made contact with the Regency of Urgel, and so began her involvement with the main guerrillas in the ultra-royalist faction, including Antonio Marañón, known as ‘The Trappist.’ Some biographers seek to claim she had a romantic affair with ‘The Trappist.’

It is said she rode into battle with her whip in one hand and a crucifix in the other, burning villages by day and praying the rosary at night. She led her followers to believe they had the support of the Holy See, the French government and the Russian emperor, who would supply them with troops, money and arms.

She was involved in the capture of Seo de Urgel in Catalonia on 21 June 1822, followed by the proclamation of Ferdinand VII as absolute monarch. For this, the Regency rewarded Josefina with the title of Condesa de Sales or Countess de Sales, a distinction later confirmed by King Fernando VII.

At the fall of the constitutional regime in 1824, she moved to Barcelona, where she continued plotting ultra-royalist activities. However, while she was in in Barcelona she was far from Cervera, the main focus of the rebellion.

When the new absolutist movement was set up in 1826, ‘The Trappist’ died as a prisoner in a convent and she was imprisoned in Barcelona. However, Josefina made good her escape from Barcelona and installed herself in Cervera, where she gathered a new ultra-royalist group, with the support of a large number of priests.

She led the fight from her horse, without letting go of her sword. Yet she would also lock herself in her library “surrounded by war books, taking notes, drawing sketches of the most advantageous squares by their strategic position, writing memoirs, proclamations and letters.”

When the ‘malcontents’ were defeated and the main leaders were shot and hanged, Josefina was arrested on 18 November 1827 was imprisoned in the Ciudadela or citadel in Barcelona. She was accused of holding meetings in her house that gave rise to the constitution of the Junta de Cervera, as well as having encouraged more than 150 people to arm themselves.

She denied all the charges against her but was found guilty. Her death sentence was commuted because she was a woman, and she was sentenced to live an enclosed life in exile in the Convent of Encarnación in Seville.

Corral del Conde (1850), Adolph Rouargue ... Josefina Comerford lived a secluded life in Seville until she died in 1865

Josefina regained her freedom after the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833, and for the rest of her life she lived a secluded, almost hidden life in the Corral del Conde, a large mansion that still stands on Calle Santiago in Seville.

The first semi-biographical accounts of her adventurous life were written during her own life by her political opponents, including Agustín Letamendi (1849) and Francisco J. Orellana (1856). Some of the accounts discredit her by alleging she had an affair with a young gardener in the convent where she was forced to live in Seville.

Don Antonio Pirala, the historian of the 19th century civil wars, tried to see her in Seville in 1853 but was told she either was back in Catalonia or had returned to Ireland to settle family affairs and to recover some of her belongings.

He was disappointed not to meet “this extraordinary woman, who hates even the memory of the past but retains the genius, the strength of soul and manly breath of her youth despite her infirmities.”

She died in Seville on the Monday before Easter 151 years ago, on 3 April 1865, and was buried in the Cemetery of San Fernando in grave number 527.

Her life has been the subject of many popular Spanish romantic novels, so that the historical biographical details of her life are often lost in the fictional retelling of her legend. She is often described as “the woman general,” “la dama azul,” and “the fanatic,” while other writers have defended her as “a defamed heroine.”

Many of the historical accounts of her life are based on the semi-fictional two-volume book by Agustín de Letamendi, Josefina Comerford o el Fanatismo (Josefina Comerford or Fanaticism), published in Madrid in 1849, or the work of Francisco J. Orellana, the author of El Conde de España o la inquisición militar (The Count of Spain or the military inquisition), published in Madrid in 1856.

Letamendi’s book is influential, and many of the authors who wrote about the adventures of this Comerford countess drew on his semi-fictional book for their information, uncritically including its many errors. The details of her family origins and her guerrilla activities were copied from one book to another, reproducing silly details and inaccuracies.

Cristóbal de Castro’s novel The English woman and the Trappist (1926) is misleading even in its title describing her as “the English woman.” He rescues Josefina de Comerford as a heroine in his short, 60-page novel, in which she is portrayed as a beautiful and enigmatic woman who was known as “la dama azul.

But he makes religious fanaticism the keystone of her life, and he invents the story of her affair with Frasquito, the gardener’s son. He ends with a degraded character who falls into alcoholism after her turbulent relationship held with the young man in the convent garden.

In 1948, Federico Suarez Verdeguer cited the treatment received by Josefina Comerford in history as an example of the total absence of political impartiality with which the history of 19th century Spain has been analysed. He compared her treatment with that of Mariana Pineda, who is considered a martyr for freedom because she had the courage to make a flag for liberals.

A few years later, in 1955, the ABC newspaper published an article by Pedro Sanchez Nunez entitled ‘Una heroína difamada’ (‘A defamed heroine’).

The historical and fictional accounts of her life include: Agustín de Letamendi, Josefina de Comerford o el fanatismo (Madrid, 1849), Betino Pérez Galdós, ‘Episodios Nacionales,’ in El voluntario realista (num 18, Madrid, 1976), Francisco José Orellana, El conde de España (Madrid, 1856), Antonio Pirala, Historia de la guerra civil y de los partidos liberal y carlista (Madrid, 1889-1891), Crisóbal de Castro, La Inglesa y el Trapense (Madrid, 1926), Crisóbal de Castro, La generala carlista (Madrid, 1931), Pío Baroja, Siluetas Románticas (Madrid, 1938).

Gothic architecture in the narrow streets of the old city in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

13 white geese in cathedral cloister honour Barcelona’s young martyr

The geese in the cathedral cloisters in Barcelona recall the story of the martyrdom of Saint Eulalia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

The square in front of Barcelona Cathedral, the Pla de la Seu, is a popular meeting place, but also acts as a stage for some of the best buskers in the city. On Sunday morning, the square also provides a stage for the Sardana Dances. The Sardana is the unique national folk dance Catalonia but anyone can join in this dance at noon on Sundays.

Barcelona Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulàlia (Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia or Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia) is a fine example of Catalan Gothic architecture, seen in its roof, cimborio or octagonal lantern, the choir area, the side chapels and its gargoyles, featuring a wide range of domestic and mythical animals.

But one of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the cathedral is the cloister, with its own series of side altars and side chapels, an enclosed garden, and a fountain a pond.

The secluded Gothic Cloisters were completed in 1448, and at the heart of the cloisters is the Fountain of the Geese (Font de les Oques), the fountain and pond that provide a home to 13 white geese.

The sound of the loud cackling of the geese can be heard throughout the cathedral. In the past, they warned against intruders and thieves, but the number of the geese is explained variously by the story that Saint Eulàlia was 13 when she was martyred or that she suffered 13 tortures while she was being martyred by during a persecution of Christians by Romans in the reign of Emperor Diocletian.

Saint Eulàlia is the co-patron saint of Barcelona, alongside Saint George. She was a young teenager when she died a martyr’s death after refusing to deny that Christ is the Son of God.

The panels on the alabaster sarcophagus of Saint Eulalia recalls her tortures and martyrdom (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Saint Eulalia (Aulaire, Aulazia, Olalla, Eulària) – her name means “well spoken” – was born ca 290. In late third century Barcelona, the Roman Consul Dacian was engaged in the relentless persecution of local Christians. Saint Eulàlia presented herself before Dacian to proclaim her Christian faith and to rebuke him for his harsh treatment of Christians.

Dacian is said to have condemned her to 13 tortures, each one marking a year of her age. At first, she was exposed naked in the public square but a miraculous snowfall in mid-spring covered her nudity. She was then put inside a barrel filled with glass (or knives) and rolled down the street now known as Baixada de Santa Eulàlia or Saint Eulàlia’s Descent, and where there is now a small chapel.

She survived and so her persecutors tried to burn her alive. But she survived this torture too, and emerged unscathed as the flames miraculously drew away from her body and instead headed for the soldiers.

Despite her sufferings, the girl’s faith never faltered, and her ordeals never led her to recant her Christianity. Her other tortures included having her breasts cut off, and being crucified on an X-shaped cross. She is often depicted with this cross as one of the instruments of her martyrdom.

Finally, she was decapitated. A dove is said to have flown out from her neck after her head was severed. The date of her martyrdom is given as 12 February 303.

The body of Saint Eulalia was first kept in the Church of Santa Maria del Mar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Her body was originally kept in the church of Santa Maria de les Arenes (Saint Mary of the Sands), now Santa Maria del Mar (Saint Mary of the Sea). It was hidden in 713 during the Moorish invasion, and was only recovered in 878.

The shrine of Saint Eulalia in the crypt in Barcelona Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In 1339, she was moved to an alabaster sarcophagus in the crypt of the newly-built Cathedral, before the High Altar.

As well as Saints Eulàlia, the cathedral houses the tombs of Saint Olegarius, Saint Raymond of Penyafort, Count Ramon Berenguer I and his third wife Almodis de la Marche, Bishop Berenguer de Palou II, Bishop Salvador Casañas y Pagés, and Bishop Arnau de Gurb, who is buried in the Chapel of Santa Llúcia, which he had built.

Today, the body of Saint Eulàlia remains in the cathedral crypt, the secluded cloister remains home to the 13 white geese who honour her memory, and the sardanistes or Sardana dancers can be expected outside the cathedral again next Sunday morning, dancing in the the Pla de la Seu.

The Sardana dancers in the square in front of Barcelona Cathedral last Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)