Guernica

Gernika-Lumo in Basque (official name) or Guernica Luno in Spanish is there a provincial town of Biscay, in Euskadi, in the North-West of the Spanish State. The city counts 15 571 inhabitants in 2004.

Historical religious capital of the Spanish Basque Country, it is particularly famous for its destruction, on April 26th 1937, by the aviators of the Légion Condor, sent by Hitler to the help of the Général Free.

This first terrorist bombardment of the History shocked and inspired by many artists: Guernica is also the name of one of the most famous tables of Pablo Picasso, one of the most violent sculptures of Rene Iché and one of the poems of Paul Éluard under the title of " Victory of Guernica".

History

Symbol of the Fueros

Spiritual capital of the Basque Country, this city was the place where met the legislative assemblies of Biscay and especially where the Spanish kings lent oath, at the time of their accession to the capacity, and swore to observe the fors or fueros (old charters guaranteeing freedoms of a city or a State) and to preserve and protect the laws and the rights in force in the Basque provinces.

A plate points out the words formulated in 1936 by Jose Antonio Aguirre, first Lehendakari of Euskadi, which became the protocolar formula to lend this oath.

"In front of God humiliated

upright on the Basque ground

in remembering the ancestors

under the tree of Gernika

in front of you

representatives of the people

I swear to achieve my mission" accurately;

The ceremony proceeded traditionally under a oak become the symbol of the freedom of the people Basque. This gathering which remains since unmemorable times was one of the first testimonys of Démocratie where formerly elected of the people and old of all the Biscay met. The oak which accommodated the first Juntas of the seigniory of Biscay is affirmed with the wire of the centuries like the symbol of the existence of people and institutions vis-a-vis the misadventures of the history which the Basques known in their past as a community. The Tree of Gernika exceeded the geographical framework of the Biscay to become the point of reference of all the Basque Country.

The bombardment of 1937

The April 26th 1937, market day, four escadrilles of the Legion Condor, protected by Italian fighter plans, carry out the bombardment of the town of Guernica in order to test their new weapons. The attack starts with 16:30, the explosive bombs then with the machine-gun and finally with the incendiary bombs. After having released a few 50 tons of incendiary bombs, the last planes leave the sky of Guernica towards 19:45. After the massacre, 20% of the city were in flames, and helps it of the firemen proving to be ineffective, fire was propagated to 70% of the dwellings.

This bombardment was a long time regarded as the first raid of the history of the military aviation modern on a population Civil E without defense. (First raids having been made consequently legion Condor during the first two weeks of February 1937 on the road between Málaga and Almería against tens of thousands of civil refugees fleeing the nationalist projection; to see the historical study of Jesús Majada Neila and Fernando Bueno Pérez: Carretera Málaga-Almería (Febrero of 1937), Caligrama Ediciones, to also 2006.Voir the photographs of Norman Bethune in El crimen of will carretera Málaga-Almería (febrero of 1937) catalogs published by Caligrama following the exposure of Jesús Majada Neila, with the Town hall of Vélez Málaga, in January 2005.)

According to the British journalist C.L. Steer, corresponding at the time of the Times, 800 with 3 000 of the 5 000 inhabitants of Guernica perished. The figure given by the Basque government makes state of 1654 dead and more than 800 wounded.

the table of Picasso

Pablo Picasso will paint the horror of this event in a table become famous: Guernica, ordering of the Spanish government for their house of the World Fair of 1937 in Paris. Otto Abetz, the ambassador Nazi with Paris which would have required of him, a little made indignant, during its exposure, if it were him which had done that, Picasso would have answered: “ Not, it is you ”

Dimension of the table: 349,3 X 776,6 cm

It is the sight of this table which carried the decision of Robert Wogensky to become painter.

Twinnings

Berga, (Catalonia)
Celaya,
Pforzheim,

Random links: