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The Model prison (Barcelona Men’s Penitentiary Center) occupied two blocks of Enixample, located between Roselló, Provença, Nicaragua and Entença streets. Construction began in 1887 and was inaugurated on June 9, 1904.
The great overcrowding that the Reina Amalia prison had in its day forced the authorities to seek a solution to the continuous clashes between inmates and officials. The decision was initially to separate men and women by moving the former to a new compound on the outskirts of the city.
It was inaugurated in 1904 and is the dean of Catalan prisons. The motto of its construction revealed a new penitentiary conception that changed the punishment for the social reinsertion that the prisoners should receive.
It was an example of the prototypical rationalist architectural style of prison buildings that followed the cellular radio system, designed to ensure visual control of the entire complex from a single central point, usually a watchtower. In 1908 the Model underwent an extension of 200 cells for prisoners convicted by sentence.
On October 6, 1934, Lluís Companys, president of the Generalidad de Catalunya, unilaterally proclaimed the Catalan State within the Spanish Republic. The Government of the Second Republic, through the Captain General in Catalonia, Domingo Batet Mestres, an hour later, declared Martial Law throughout Catalonia.
Three and a half hours later, a small detachment armed with light artillery was ready to bombard the Generalitat.
At 6 in the morning on October 7, Companys surrendered to General Domingo Batet and the Government of the Generalitat was arrested and imprisoned in La Modelo.
At the end of the Civil War, the prison increased the origin of its tenants, since many political prisoners, detained by the Franco regime, were added to the confinement of common criminals, reaching the point of quadrupling its optimum capacity.
There were famous personalities from political, social and cultural life, who passed through its premises or those of the Montjuïc castle during the Franco regime. La Modelo was a symbol of the political repression exercised by the Franco regime in the city.
Salvador Puig Antich was a young Catalan anarchist born in Barcelona in 1948. From his beginnings at the religious school La Salle Bonanova he became friends with Xavier Garriga and the Solé Sugranyes brothers (Oriol and Ignasi), all of them future companions of the Iberian Liberation Movement ( THOUSAND).
The episodes of French May 1968 were decisive for Puig Antich to decide to get involved in the fight against the Franco dictatorship.
A CCOO militant, he was part of the Student Commission of the Maragall Institute. He ideologically soon evolved towards anarchist positions, in the struggle of the working class towards its emancipation.
In August 1973, it met in France to celebrate the self-dissolution congress of the MIL. The following month, after the robbery of a Caixa office, a strong police offensive would begin against the militants of the MIL.
Santi Soler, arrested and tortured, ended up confessing the places of the clandestine meetings of his companions. He would be used as bait by the secret police to arrest Xavier Garriga and Salvador Puig Antich.
The arrest took place on September 25, 1973 in Barcelona. The two anarchists were imprisoned in the portal of number 70 Girona street, after a shooting in which Puig Antich was badly wounded, while one of the civil guards, Francisco Anguas Barragán, was killed.
Puig Antich was imprisoned and accused of being the author of the shot that caused the death of the civil guard, he was later tried in court martial and sentenced to death. Franco, who had suffered a severe blow with the assassination of the President of the Government, Carrero Blanco, on December 20, by ETA, took advantage of the circumstance to bring down all his revenge against those who tried to end his power, taking Puig Antich as the visible head of the repression of all acts of vandalism of the moment.
Despite the demonstrations not only in Spain but in the rest of the world that requested pardon, Salvador Puig Antich was executed by means of a vile garrote, on March 2, 1974 at 9:40 in the morning.
In 1984, in another episode for history, the Model became famous after the prisoner riot and the subsequent escape that Juan José Moreno Cuenca El Vaquilla starred in.
In its 113-year history, it was only empty on two occasions, at the beginning and at the end of the Spanish Civil War: on July 19, 1936, the prisoners (851) were released by the anarchists. On January 23, 1939, several hundred prisoners were taken by the Military Information Service (SIM) to the French border, some were released and others were shot. On January 26, hours before the entry of Franco’s troops, the rest of the inmates were released, including prisoners from both the rebel side and militants from the CNT and the POUM.
The center definitively ceased its activity on June 8, 2017, one day before the 113th anniversary of its inauguration. From July 3 to November 26, 2017, it was open to the public for free visits.
Currently, La Model, Espacio Memorial recovers and interprets the history of this former prison. You can participate in guided tours. In addition, it will become a center for facilities, with a large green space and 121 new homes.
