Location of public executions in Barcelona in the 1830s

Does anyone happen to know where murderers were done away with at that stage? Some kind of reference would be most helpful.

Trevor @ 21 February 2008 6:16 PM

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1. Trevor ap Simon
   1:13 PM on 22 February 2008

   This (The Monthly Chronicle, 1840), although a bit early, is an example of the kind of thing against which I am up:

   The Count de Espana was descended from an ancient and noble French family. At the period of the execution of Louis XVI. his father emigrated to Spain, where he became naturalised, and where he changed his title of Espayne to Espana, thus bestowing on his name a termination more suited to the language of his adopted country. The young count obtained at an early age a commission in the Royal Guards, and, during the war of independence, distinguished himself in Catalonia. On the restoration of Ferdinand he was promoted to the rank of general, and was appointed governor of Tarragona, where, to the present day, his name is held in execration. On the breaking out of the constitutional war he sided with the Absolutists; and, after the temporary overthrow by French bayonets of the liberal party, was named by Ferdinand to the command in chief of the Royal Guard. From 1822 to 1827 he was the principal instrument employed to gratify the cowardly and cold-blooded vengeance of his royal master; but from the latter period, particularly, may be dated his infamous notoriety. The attempt made by the Apostolicals, in 1827, to place Don Carlos on the throne is well known to those acquainted with the modern history of Spain. Ferdinand, monster as he was, did not come up to the idea entertained by the Catalan monks of what a Catholic monarch should be. An army of 80,000 men was raised in the mountains, and the command given to the notorious Jep-del-Estanys, who had practised the calling of a fisherman until 1822, when he joined the standard of the Faith as a simple volunteer. The insurrection assumed so threatening an aspect that Ferdinand determined to proceed to Barcelona, and exercise his personal influence to put it down. He was attacked on his way by the insurgents, who were, however, entirely defeated by the royalist troops, and their leader taken and shot. On leaving Barcelona, Ferdinand appointed the Count de España captain-general of Catalonia, with instructions to root out every remnant of the rebellion; and the faithful viceroy well understood the import of his mission.

   We shall not sicken our readers with the disgusting details of the enormities of the captain-general during the seven years of his government. The pen cannot describe, the tongue can scarcely utter, nor can the heart of man conceive, the barbarities inflicted on all indiscriminately by this savage satrap. Carlist and Constitutionalist, Liberal and Legitimist, all alike furnished the same material for his refined cruelty. The hymn of Riego, the Tragala, and other patriotic airs, were, by his order, performed at the foot of the gallows, in order to mock the last agony of the expiring constitutionalists. The gibbet, the poniard, and even the deadly drug, were alike the instruments of punishment employed by him ; and torture of the most ingenious construction was added for the purpose of augmenting the excruciating pangs of death. His vengeance was not alone lavished on the living, — the cold and decomposed remains of his victims were again torn from their graves, and exposed to indignity along the public highways; and the inhabitants of Barcelona and Tarragona beheld daily the decaying remains of their friends and their relatives suspended along the walls of their cities, and blackening in the noonday sun! He was cruel by nature, and a monster by constitution — the Count de Espana! In early childhood he is said to have manifested a similar disposition for inflicting torture on the helpless; and it is related of him that he was in the habit of frequently amusing himself by applying to the limbs of his aged and blind lather a red-hot iron, and of expressing the most unbounded delight at the anguish of the old man. His acts at a more mature period of life render such a tale highly probable.

   Most entertaining, and a cogent demonstration of why Barcelona merchants of the time preferred to converse with colleagues in other Spanish cities than with their “compatriots” in the hills. But where?!

2. Trevor ap Simon
   3:25 PM on 28 February 2008

   Solved, thanks to JD. Various places is the answer, detailed in L’espectacle de la pena de mort

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