The rear façade of the church of Sant Jaume, on Carrer de la Lleona, has preserved a graffiti with the initials CNT-FAI since the first days of the civil war. The parish was one of the buildings seized by the anarchist union, which was key to failing the coup in Barcelona thanks to the mobilization of its numerous members.
The graffiti miraculously survives, but it has been there since July 1936, when it was presumably made. On the 19th of that month, hours after the military uprising in Melilla against the Republic, some army units left the barracks to go to the center of the city, but were neutralized by public order forces and militants from unions and political parties. left.
The CNT-FAI had a special role and, once the coup d’état was quelled in the Catalan capital, this union, the UGT and the POUM, among other organizations, occupied churches, hotels and palaces, which they converted into soup kitchens, warehouses and accommodations for refugees. Sant Jaume was one of the churches seized by the anarchist organization, which, like the rest, began a race to mark territory through brush graffiti throughout the city.
Sant Jaume is not the only parish that preserves the CNT-FAI graffiti, but they are the best preserved. In the Sant Andreu neighborhood, in the Sant Pacià church, it is difficult to see them, but the trace of the union’s initials remains on either side of the main door. You have to look very carefully because they are practically erased, but they are still there. The Franco regime made them disappear with a layer of cement, which time has eroded until revealing the trace of the graffiti made with tar. Sant Pacià was saved from being burned thanks to the priest of the time, who negotiated with the anarchist militiamen to respect the temple in exchange for turning it into a soup kitchen.
The parish of Sant Andreu, in Orfila Square, did not suffer the same fate, which suffered the wrath of the militiamen, who even planned to blow up its iconic dome. In fact, they already had the dynamite charges placed, but a municipal official managed to convince them in extremis due to the danger it posed to neighboring homes.
