A Tale of Two Cities - Cambridge University Press

‘A Tale of Two Cities’. The Memory of Ferrol, between the Navy
and the Working Class.*
of stratification on which society was based, and the need to defend
the city from enemy attacks and to discipline workers led to the
application of a spatial plan charged with violence and with the
segregation of the Navy officers and the working-classes. Yet this
organization of space demanded a highly costly coercive system,
which clashed openly with working-class people when unfavourable
economic and political circumstances reduced the financial and
coercive capacity of the State.
José María Cardesín
‘It was clearer than crystal to the lords of the
State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in
general were settled for ever’
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
In the long term, the changes brought about by international
economics and geopolitics and by the art of war had a direct impact
on the viability of the city. In addition, changes in political culture
and class alliances led to a redefinition of the practices of power. In
the 19th century, the naval base and the enclave economy of Ferrol
became obsolete. Furthermore, the new political culture of the nation
state and liberal democracy complicated even further the already
complex task of controlling a working class which could eventually
forge an alliance with the local bourgeoisie. Ferrol’s spatial plan
proved ineffective against enemy attacks or in disciplining workers,
and hindered the growth of the city. The various projects aimed at
reformulating the city’s spatial plan were based on different policies
of memory that attempted to reinterpret the city’s history. The
political culture of outright confrontation that led to the Civil War
allowed for the updating of Ferrol’s spatial plan thanks to the
identification of a single – and ‘accessible’ – enemy both inside and
outside. The pro-Franco Navy converted the political repression
against the working-class people into a major issue in the victory
against ‘the red enemy’: the II Republica. The Franco regime meant
the return of a segregated and militarised Ferrol, whereas in the
1980s, European integration and the transition to democracy made
this model obsolete. Ever since, the difficulties the city has
encountered in outlining an alternative development project and
tracing a policy of memory agreed by consensus have been directly
linked, and are at once both the cause and effect of the lack of
stability that exists in local politics.
‘Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called
a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called
an emperor’
Augustinus, De Civitate Dei
M
odern political culture was formed – amongst other
things- by practices of power. It was devised in the
cities, because the institutions of power were
founded there and, in addition to this, cities posed new challenges for
the provision, logistics and control of the population. Many cities of
the Age of Enlightenment - particularly those built up on a military
basis - were places where the new disciplinary technologies 1 that
operated through a coercive organization of space, or the policies of
memory 2 that attempted to manufacture consent were to be put to the
test. There, elaborate scenographies were to be organized, in order to
show off the ceremonial rituals of the state and the elite. Yet the
population did not remain the passive recipients of these practices of
power: instead they qualified them and created limitations for their
application to everyday life, openly calling them into question during
times of crisis,3 and reinterpreting the ideas of official political
culture to suit their own ends.4 The history of the founding of Ferrol
is a clear illustration of this. The city was designed ‘ex-novo’ by
military engineers to serve the Spanish monarchy of the Age of
Enlightenment, housing its naval base and dockyards. The principles
Ferrol
1
Urban History
urban settlements apart from the small town of Ferrol, henceforth
referred to as ‘Ferrol Viejo’ (Old Ferrol), with just over one thousand
inhabitants. The monarchy decided to found a new city, also called
‘Ferrol’, and which became the capital of the Maritime Department of
the North in 1726.5
The Shipyards of the Bourbon Monarchy (1750)
Map of the inlets of Ferrol, Coruña and Betanzos, by Vicente Tofiño (1787)
Source: Own work
A.- A city charged throughout history with segregation and
violence.
Ferrol was founded as the result of a political decision. After
signing the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the new Bourbon dynasty opted
to reorganize the Navy, since it was necessary to defend the Spanish
coast and the American colonies, and to protect trade. The coast of
the Iberian Peninsula was divided into three maritime departments,
and naval bases and dockyards were set up around their capital cities.
Whilst Cartagena became the seat of the Department of Levante (the
Mediterranean Sea), and Cadiz for the South [Atlantic], the capital of
the Northern Department was located in the northwest of the
Peninsula, on the Galician coast. The Ferrol estuary was strategically
situated as regards sea traffic, and it could threaten British
communications with America and the East Indies route. The deep
draught estuary was easy to defend since it had a narrow mouth
surrounded by mountains. The only obstacle was the absence of any
Ferrol
Source: Colección Carlos Martínez Barbeito de Estampas de Galicia, Ayuntamiento de A
Coruña
The first stage took place during the reign of Felipe V and
lasted until 1740. Warehouses, offices and shipyards were
provisionally located in the small village of A Graña. Two castles (San
Felipe and La Palma) and seven coast batteries made the estuary
impregnable. In the reign of Fernando VI and under the rule of the
2
Urban History
Marquis of Ensenada (1746-54), the shipyards and the civil and
military sheds were moved to their current location out at the estuary.
The aim was to look for waters of deep draught and an area adjacent to
the coast that was a suitable site for the new city.
The city underwent periods of prosperity and decline,
depending on whether the political and economic circumstances of
the day were favourable for the Navy and shipbuilding industry. The
expansion during the second half of the 18th century coincided with
the reactivation of the colonial trade and a new naval policy during
the reigns of Fernando VI and Carlos III. The shipyards, where up to
twelve warships could be built at any one time, employed more than
5,000 workers. The population grew from 455 ‘vecinos’7 registered in
the 1746 census to 1,208 ‘vecinos’ in 1751, and by the end of the
century numbered approximately 4,100. This last figure represents a
total of around 20,000 or 25,000 inhabitants. Ferrol by 1800 was the
most important city in Galicia.8
The remote situation of the city set midway up the estuary
surrounded by a rugged coast did not aid land communications or the
diversification of the economy. The nearby city of A Coruña absorbed
the trading and the administrative functions,6 and communications by
land between the two cities were poor. The new enclave’s industry
depended on external decisions, funds and technology. And the
strategic advantages linked to the location and impregnability of the
estuary would gradually vanish due to the changes brought about by
international geopolitics and the art of war. In consequence, the
reactivation of the facilities depended increasingly on political
decisions in favour of Ferrol or of other different centres. Connections
with influential national politicians became extremely important.
The vessel Santísima Trinidad, launched in Havana in 1769
Ships built in Ferrol (1750-1860)
Source: Museo Naval de Madrid
Source: Own work
Ferrol
3
Urban History
During his time as Secretary of Finance, War, Navy and the
Indies, the Marquis of Ensenada worked out a geo-strategic vision, a
defensive naval policy and the budgetary funds for the creation of
Ferrol. Naval reforms at that time gave priority to warships that could
combine speed with heavy artillery. Not only were shipyards of Ferrol
refitted for building this kind of vessel; its dockyards were also
remodelled to fit them out and repair them.9 Installations that included
specific buildings were needed to facilitate the technical and labour
organization. Navy officers were sent in 1749-50 to spy on the English,
French and Baltic dockyards.10
were built in 1752-70. These consisted of a large dock protected by a
breakwater armed with a battery of cannons. The ‘Park Dockyard’
acted as a storehouse for the supplies of arms and equipment and the
facilities where masts and spars were assembled. Maintenance and
repair work was carried out in the ‘Dock Dockyard’, particularly the
delicate operation of careening the ship hull. The careening docks were
emptied using pumps, an exhausting –practically lethal- task. That is
why a ‘Presidio’ was built in the ‘Dock Dockyard’, with a gaol which
could house 1,000 convicts.11 Moreover, the authorities resorted
massively to forced labour during the early stages of building:
hundreds of gypsies and vagabonds, and thousands of unskilled
Galician labourers, who attempted to escape en masse.12
The city of Ferrol, 1859
Park Dockyard, showing the breakwater and the Arms Hall (1850)
Source: Lithograph of José Alonso Esquivel (1850), Museo Naval de Madrid. Modified by
J. Gelpi
The people who worked in shipyards and dockyards were
called the ‘maestranza’.13 They were organized in trades, and it was not
an easy task to discipline them. Indeed, discipline was made even more
difficult due to the arrears of several months’ payment, a situation
which would grow steadily worse towards the end of the 18th century.
The paralegal practice of picking up ‘splinters’ –surplus pieces of
Source: Colección Carlos Martínez Barbeito de Estampas de Galicia, Ayuntamiento de A
Coruña
The most urgent task was to start work on the first vessels. For
this reason separate shipyards were built in advance in 1749-53, and
located in Esteiro to the east. Next to the Shipyards, the Dockyards
Ferrol
4
Urban History
Arms Hall, in the Park Dockyard (1903)
wood– became an essential complementary income, because it allowed
workers to obtain immediate funds. But this fact might conceal
larceny, which was the authorities’ nightmare together with the
shirking of duty and insubordination. Sabotage was easy in dockyards
where combustible materials abounded,14 and pamphlets containing
threats of arson were common weapons in labour disputes.15 The
authorities tried to suppress the habit of smoking at work, and they
strived to restrict, although unsuccessfully, the popular custom of
burning bonfires during the celebration of ‘Saint John’s Eve’.16
Military control was needed, either over the forced labourers
or the free ‘maestranza’ workers, hence the early presence in the city
of regiments of marines, a total of 3,000 soldiers in 1753. New
disciplinary technologies that operated through a coercive
organization of space were also developed. The naval facilities were
isolated from the inhabited areas. The Esteiro shipyards were
surrounded by a wall, which had a single entrance. The seven-metrehigh wall that enclosed the dockyards was surrounded by a deep and
wide moat. It also had a single entrance, the ‘Dock Gate’. The wall
and moat managed to prevent the theft of materials and tools, and the
‘maestranza’ from shirking their duties. They also helped to stop
convicts from escaping, and if the ‘maestranza’ revolted the wall and
the moat blocked the access to the Dockyard, particularly to the
‘Arms Hall’ where the cannons and guns were kept. ‘Maestranza’ and
seamen were subject to military discipline. The Commander-in-chief
of the Department was chief of both the squadron and the dockyards.
In addition, both groups fell within the Navy’s jurisdiction. In 1785,
the ‘Penal Acts for the Rule of the “Maestranza” in the Royal
Dockyards of the Navy’ established the daily review, and all forms of
offence were punished with imprisonment or by locking the victim’s
hands and legs in the stocks situated at the Dock Gate.17
Ferrol
Source: Postcard collection. Property of Ferrol City Council
Such a coercive organization of space was also the basis for
the development of the policies of memory. The dockyards showed
an impressive architecture, proclaiming the power of Monarchy. The
monumental ‘Dock Gate’, which was crowned by Carlos III’s coat of
arms, not only welcomed the workers; it was also displayed before
the whole population. The large clock at the top set the pace of work,
as well as that of the city life, as did the siren that indicated when the
‘maestranza’ were to start and finish work. In front of the Dock Gate,
a fountain-obelisk was built and crowned with an image of ‘Fame’,
blowing its clarion in honour of the King.
5
Urban History
Dock Gate, Ferrol’s Dockyard (c. 1900)
building, was situated on a vantage point, overlooking the bay, the
Dockyards, the Shipyard, and the town. The 4,000 soldiers housed in
that building carried out manoeuvres in front of the barracks: they
displayed their military prowess and were a warning to the
‘maestranza’. The ‘Navy Hospital’ depended on military jurisdiction. It
was also funded by the collecting of ‘splinters’ -surplus pieces of
wood- to the detriment of the workers’ income. Whereas Navy officers
and their families were cared for in this hospital, the ‘maestranza’
could only be looked after in the event of a labour accident, whilst their
families were not entitled to this hospital care. They would have to go
to the ‘Charity Hospital’, situated to the north of La Magdalena.18
A 'Battalions' marine and an Artilleryman (late 18th century)
Source: Postcard collection. Property of Ferrol City Council
As the old town of Ferrol Viejo was very small and couldn’t
house the new inhabitants, it was necessary to build a new city that also
was divided into two neighbourhoods. In 1750s Esteiro was built for
the ‘maestranza’, at the foot of the Shipyards. Opposite the Dockyards,
the new neighbourhood called La Magdalena was to house the Navy
officers.
Due to the decision to build the shipyards in advance, the
workers had to be accommodated in nearby areas: first, in barracks,
later in wooden huts, and finally in stone houses. The military
engineers created a grid design for Esteiro. It was more than a century
before work on the city installations – the paving and the sewer
system- got underway. The engineers designed a rectangular square
between the neighbourhood and the Shipyard, called ‘Esteiro Square’.
The Navy Quartermaster offices, the military church, a hospital and a
barracks were built there. The ‘Battalions Barracks,’ a magnificent
Ferrol
Source: Watercolour on display in the Museo Naval de Madrid.
A sharp division was established between the ‘maestranza’ and
seamen, and the Navy officers, particularly the ‘General Corps’ – the
elite in command of a troop or a vessel –. Bourbon reforms ended the
standard practice of promoting seamen to officers. The latter would be
required to show proof of purity of blood and noble origin as a
prerequisite to join the new Royal Naval Academy. Besides, in this
6
Urban History
region, where two languages coexisted unequally – Galician, spoken
by most of the population, and Spanish, the prestige language spoken
by the city educated elite – the alien Navy officers would speak
Spanish, the ‘maestranza’ Galician. This linguistic segregation lies in
the names of both neighbourhoods: Esteiro is a Galician word meaning
‘Tideland’, whereas La Magdalena – in Spanish - means ‘Mary
Magdalene’. The Napoleonic Wars had a democratising effect on the
social origin of the Army officers, but the consequences were different
in the Navy, where an inner recruitment was reinforced by the rotation
of officers between the headquarters in Ferrol, Cadiz and Cartagena.
since Esteiro was a temporary solution and was set to be demolished at
some future stage. But following the fall of the Marquis of Ensenada a
new offensive naval policy took hold. The war expenses monopolized
an increasing part of the budget, in detriment to work on the Dockyards
and the new city. In 1761, the military engineer Francisco Llobet
considered Esteiro a ‘fait accompli’, and designed a smaller La
Magdalena, which was ‘de facto’ set apart for the military men.
San Julián Church (early 20th century)
Map of the city of Ferrol (1859)
Source: Postcard collection. Property of Ferrol City Council
In 1763, military engineer Julián Sánchez Bort came up with
the final version of the plan: six longitudinal streets, nine cross-streets,
identical in width and crossed rectangular blocks of equal size. Two
squares were planned at each end, ‘Dolores [Our Lady of Sorrow]
Square’ and the ‘Parade Ground’, which the three main streets led into.
The result was a stage, suitable for civil and military parades. It also
Source: VVAA, El Barrio de la Magdalena del Ferrol (Santiago de Compostela, 1980).
COAG
La Magdalena was designed by military engineers, and its first
stage was built at around the same time as the Dockyard.19 By 1755 a
city was being planned where the different social classes were mixed,
Ferrol
7
Urban History
facilitated the movement of troops in the event of a revolt (as
prescribed by military engineering treatises). Sánchez Bort designed
the first major public ‘tree-lined walk’ in Galicia, called ‘Alameda’,
situated between La Magdalena and the wall surrounding the
Dockyards. This would be a favourite area for strolling and the
celebration of civil ceremonies until the second half of the 19th century.
A careful setting was displayed before whoever walked along the
‘Alameda’: towards the Dockyards, the ‘Battalions Barracks’, the
‘Dock Gate’ and the ‘Arms Hall’; towards La Magdalena, the
magnificent San Julián Church, the public Prison (1802), and the
‘Capitanía Palace’ (1760), headquarters of the Commander-in-chief of
the Naval Department and watchtower over the city and the
Dockyards.20 And it was Sánchez Bort himself who designed the final
plans of the first four buildings, which were officially opened between
1765-66. 21
century, causing a stench that failed to be eradicated due to the
inability of the Civil and Naval authorities to reach an agreement.
The Navy authorities organized the provisioning of the city and
imposed taxes on food and drinks. After 1769, transactions of foods
were carried out around ‘Dolores Square’, near ‘Capitanía Palace’. In
1784, peddlers –most of them women- were settled there by force.23 A
moral issue prevailed beyond the desire for controlling prices: to
discipline women’s sexuality since it could carry syphilis, the disease
that decimated the troops.24
As the “women of the town” do not want to work or serve, they look
for a scandalous way to spoil humankind [...] the havoc that the
Gallic disease [syphilis] has been causing for some years in Spain
[…] So these women damage the Royal Treasury and the State, hurt
the troops and the seamen, who are always sent to Hospital, and
some of them die and some of them are badly cured [...] In Ferrol
there must be one hundred impure women who meet soldiers,
seamen and other lustful people.25
The military authority took charge of the construction of the
city. The Commander-in-chief of the Navy was the ‘Military Chief of
the Fortress’, and the marines carried out police tasks until 1774.22 In
that year, the city walls were finished. From a military point of view
their poor construction made them useless, but they were an
omnipresent reminder of the military jurisdiction, and a valuable aid
in the collection of local taxes on food and drinks. Civil authority was
placed in the hands of an ‘Alcalde Mayor’ (Mayor), who was
appointed at first by the military authority, but from 1774 became
elective. The civil power was lacking in financial resources, and for
this reason the town hall was located opposite the ‘Dock Gate’ in
buildings which it did not own, as occurred with both the Prison
building or the ‘Cátedra de Latinidad’ (a municipal school). The
weakness of the civil power and its subordination to the Navy
authorities would go beyond the first stage of design and the city’s
early beginnings. Indeed, the lack of funds and the thorny question of
the delimitation of jurisdiction meant that the sewer system drained
La Magdalena sewage into the Dockyard’s moat for more than a
Ferrol
Those women who went along the streets, as peddlers, walking
to their jobs or taking lunch to their relatives, played havoc with the
plans to divide the city into watertight compartments, as they passed on
information and created possibly subversive solidarity networks. But if
in peacetime this reality threatened the coercive organization of space
that was displayed in Ferrol, the situation became positively explosive
in wartime. As the city was unable to get supplies from the outlying
areas and had to obtain most of its grain by sea, the various wars
provoked food crises in the second half of the 18th century. Since the
majority of the 30,000 people who lived in the city depended directly
or indirectly on the salaries paid by the Navy,26 social tension rose to
unprecedented heights and the coercive organization of space showed
its vulnerability whenever the monarchy found itself in financial
difficulties. The ‘maestranza’ revolts to protest wage arrears became
more and more frequent as the century went on: a riot in 1754, strikes
in 1781 and 1791, and a revolt in 1795. The situation became more
8
Urban History
serious due to the Napoleonic wars, when in 1805 the Spanish fleet
was destroyed at Trafalgar and many people from Ferrol lost their
lives. Coinciding with the Spanish revolt against the Napoleonic
occupation, convicts rioted in Ferrol in May 1808, followed by the
seamen in June.
underwent a series of improvements and housed the buildings that
symbolized the power of the Navy. Spatial segregation increased the
sense of social distance, laying the foundations for undercurrents of
hatred among the social classes. As early as 1771, a royal
commissioner complained about the attitude of the inhabitants of La
Magdalena, calling them ‘a load of privileged people’. In 1807, a
revolt of the ‘maestranza’ culminated in the burning of the Teatro de
la Comedia (‘Theatre of the Comedy’) situated in La Magdalena, and
exclusively reserved for Navy officers.
Scene from a Spanish shipyard (1748)
Launching of the frigate 'Restauración' in Ferrol (1825)
Source: Royal Acts for the Rule of the Dockyards of the Navy(1748), Museo Naval de
Madrid
Late that same month, a ‘Board for the Pacification of Ferrol’
was created. It was formed by the most important civil and military
authorities, and exceptionally comprised all jurisdictions ‘to take in
advance and beforehand the necessary steps and measures to avoid
the insults and disturbances of the mob, which this big town is
suffering’. 27 In order to keep the population under control, the ‘Board’
organized the city into four ‘quarters’: Ferrol Viejo, Esteiro and La
Magdalena (which included two districts). In this way the ‘Board’
actually sanctioned the social segregation of the city.28 Navy officers,
important businessmen, and liberal professionals lived in La
Magdalena, whereas most of the ‘maestranza’ and the overwhelming
majority of unskilled workers and labourers lived in Esteiro.29 La
Magdalena, which was built in such a way that allowed for military
control and the ceremonial rituals of the state and the elite, also
Ferrol
Source: Museo Naval de Madrid
In January 1809 a crowd attacked the house of the Commanderin-chief of the Department, accusing him of being ‘Frenchified’. Some
days later, the Napoleonic army occupied Ferrol. The British army
arrived in June, but left in August, taking with them all the useful
vessels and equipment. The city lived in chaos, wages remained
unpaid, and hunger arrived in 1810. On 10th February General Vargas,
the new Commander-in-chief of the Naval Department, was murdered.
9
Urban History
The Mayor of Alcoy 'dragged out' during the revolt of 1873
A group of women from the scum of society gathered riotously at the
dock gate of the dockyard [demanding payment of their men’s
wages...] The “maestranza” who were at the workshops […]
crowded together at the inner iron gate […] that wild mob dragged
the badly beaten and wounded General down the stairs that led from
his room. The dreadful cry of “drag him out” rose up from amongst
the mob; [they] tied a rope round the poor commander-in-chief’s
feet, and in front of his soldiers they took him out through the
dockyard gate and dragged him in the midst of a terrific clamour
[along the “Alameda”] as far as Esteiro [Square] where they left his
corpse [at the gate of the Shipyard].30
Source: La Ilustración Española y Americana' Magazine, in J. M. Jover (dir), Historia de
España Tomo XXXIV: La era isabelina y el sexenio democrático (1834-1874), p. 743. Ed
Espasa
E.P. Thompson explored those popular rituals in which a
humiliating punishment is meted out in public, and explained how
often they develop and subvert the ceremonial rituals of the state and
the elites.31 Lynching such as that endured by General Vargas took
place in a number of Galician and Spanish cities during the three-yearperiod that followed the Napoleonic invasion, and it was usually
directed against the highest authorities. These lynching were in fact
adopted by the mutinous mob as their own adapted version of the
ancient ritual used in capital punishment when, following execution,
the criminal’s corpse would be dragged around the town to the
accompaniment of insults hurled at it by the incensed crowds, before it
was finally put on public display.32 In Ferrol, the 1810 riots took place
throughout the borders which strictly isolated the dockyards and
shipyards from the city. Notice the itinerary adopted for the lynching.
The women went through the ‘Dock Gate’ which led to an area off
limits to the civil population, they joined the ‘maestranza’, attacking
their master’s house, from which they dragged him out along the
‘Alameda’. He was then stabbed in front of the building housing the
Prison and the Town Hall, and his body dumped at the Shipyard Gate,
next to the treasury office from which the wages were paid. The riot
questioned the prevailing disciplinary system, in the face of the passive
reaction of soldiers who also suffered the effects of the exorbitant
prices of bread and late payment of their wages.
Ferrol
In January 1811, the ‘Audiencia’ (High Court) of A Coruña
passed a sentence against two women and a man accused of being the
mutiny leaders, and stated that one of them ‘is to be hanged by the
neck and until dead and after the execution, her head must be cut and
separated from her shoulders [… and] must be fixed on a Stick
opposite the Dock Gate [... and there] the same officer must tell the
crimes that she has committed and the punishment that the
aforementioned was given’.33 The itinerary of the execution, which
returned to the scene of the crime, tried to restore the spatial division
and the initial disciplinary system. But new times demanded new
solutions. Council authorities promoted a scheme of public works that
offered jobs and reduced the vulnerability of the city during the food
crises. The construction of ‘Carretera de Castilla’ (Castilla Road)
began. The aim was to find an alternative plan to the provision of the
city by sea. The new road led directly to La Magdalena through ‘Puerta
Nueva’ (New Gate), which was opened through the city walls in 1811,
a year after the mutiny. Therefore it avoided Esteiro, the main access to
the city up till then. The two squares of La Magdalena were also being
laid out, in order to organize markets.34 The public works were also the
10
Urban History
basis of new policies of memory. On the Parade Ground a fountain,
which was crowned by a cenotaph-obelisk, was built in honour of
Brigadier Cosme Damián de Churruca in 1813. Churruca was second
in command of the Spanish fleet during the Battle of Trafalgar, and
since he died as heroically as Admiral Nelson, he would have
supposedly saved the honour of his squadron. The cenotaph meant
symbolic reparation for the murder of General Vargas, who had also
commanded a warship in Trafalgar. But its meaning went far deeper
than this. In the iconography of the new Spanish liberal regime, where
political elites tried to throw off the yoke of subordination to an
absolute monarchy, cenotaphs dedicated to the fallen heroes of the
Fatherland had come to supplant the ancient ephemeral catafalques
dedicated to the kings. Such a reading was reinforced in Ferrol by the
fact of the similarities existing between the new fountain-obelisk that
was built in the market place in honour of the Navy officer,35 and that
one which had been raised in front of the Dock Gate in honour of
Carlos III.
B.- Looking for alternatives to social segregation and dependency
on the Navy.
The city of Ferrol, 1937
Parade Ground, with the Obelisk and fountain of Churruca (c. 1905)
Source: Bernardo Castelo
During the first half of the 19th century the population fell by
50% to less than 12,000. The paralysis of the ship industry coincided
with the loss of the American colonies and the economic and political
crises that affected the country. A new period of recovery in the middle
of the 19th century was linked to the reconstruction of the state and to a
naval policy of prestige. The city reached 21,400 inhabitants in 1864.
Ferrol was suffering the effects of its inherent vulnerability to the
economic dependency on the Navy. But the consequences for the
working class were becoming increasingly serious due to the
segregation that existed in residential areas. The neighbourhood of
Esteiro had begun to deteriorate when the shipyard crisis brought about
Source: Collective Work, A Memoria de Ferrol (Vigo, 2002), p. 48. Edicións Xerais
Ferrol
11
Urban History
unemployment among the ‘maestranza’. During the first half of the 19th
century the neighbourhood lost about 1/3 of its population, whilst its
demographic weight in the city fell from 40% to 30%.36 The military
church was moved near ‘Capitanía Palace’ as did the offices of the
Navy Quartermaster, so their staff left the neighbourhood, and
therefore the Navy officers no longer had any reason to frequent the
area. Shops also closed down. Only a small barracks of the new
‘Guardia Civil’,37 which was responsible for keeping public order, was
established there.
neighbourhood, which in 1867 had six fountains and a ‘lavadero
público’.38 Meanwhile in Esteiro there were only two fountains in very
poor condition, and only one street was paved and fitted with drains.
Doctor Pastor Nieto described that neighbourhood in 1895 as ‘the most
populous and poorest [... where] the most shameless and stray
prostitution […] takes shelter […] with old, humid, dark, unventilated
houses [...] without latrines and with cesspools [...] with a deficient
sewer system, which has all of its streets except one without paving’.39
He also underlined how that neighbourhood alone had suffered from
epidemics of measles, smallpox and diphtheria in the preceding
decade.
Calle Real' (Main Street), in La Magdalena district (early 20th century)
Whilst the city remained vulnerable to crises and conditions in
Esteiro were growing steadily worse, most working-class people now
lived ‘outside the city walls’, in towns and villages by the Ferrol
estuary, and commuted to the city on foot or by boat. Part-time
farming, the evasion of local taxes placed on food and drinks, and the
access to cheap housing, and to healthier living conditions reduced the
expenses that those workers had to meet. However, the social distance
was reflected in the spatial segregation between the city and its
outskirts. At the end of the 19th century, the council authorities tried to
force the workers, who travelled to the Dockyards or to the Shipyards
from the commercial port or from the west outskirts of the city very
early in the morning, not to use the central streets of La Magdalena
and to walk along the Dockyard wall, so that their voices or the sound
of their footsteps could not bother the sleeping neighbours.40
As new subversive political ideas spread among the working
class, the move towards the outskirts reduced the chances of revolt in a
city whose coercive plan was proving to be increasingly ineffective. In
the 1880s Ferrol was a pioneer city in the Galician labour movement.
A few years earlier in 1872, a republican insurrection had taken place
in Ferrol. Non-commissioned Navy officers led about 200 marines,
1,500 seamen and 200 workers of the ‘maestranza’ and quartered for a
week in the Dockyards, which were filled with arms and, as we have
Source: Postcard collection. Property of Ferrol City Council
Improvements to city infrastructures (a sewage system in 183146, gas lighting in 1847) were mainly carried out in La Magdalena
Ferrol
12
Urban History
seen, designed to be impregnable by land and sea. As the insurrection
failed, the Navy authorities proceeded partly to disarm the Dockyards,
filling up the moat which surrounded them, and moving part of the
troops and arms to new barracks that were to be built outside the city
walls.41
unveiled a monument dedicated to Sánchez Barcaíztegui, a native of
Ferrol and Commander-in-chief of the North Navy forces, who had
died while fighting for his monarch’s claim to the throne. In 1894 a
monument was dedicated in ‘El Callao Square’ to Méndez Núñez, the
Navy officer who had been acclaimed as a national hero after leading
the Spanish squadron in the Battle of El Callao in Peru in 1866.42
Monument to Navy Officer Sánchez Barcaiztegui, in the 'Alameda' (2003)
Ball at the 'Capitanía' Palace (1907)
Source: G. Allegue, O Oficio de vivir. A Cidade (Vigo, 1996), p. 34. Ed Nigra
Source: Photograph by the author
However local middle-class men who remained firmly in control
of the town council resented being under military tutelage. The Navy
and its officers were legally exempt from council taxes. The
delimitation of jurisdictions was another controversial issue. In 1859
Ferrol had lost its sea front, and its main public space had been
mutilated when the closing wall of the Dockyards was moved forward
and devoured part of the ‘Alameda’. The city was also oppressed by
useless city walls that the Army refused to give up. Moreover, the
technological and geo-strategic changes gradually eliminated the
advantages of the estuary as the site for a naval base, while its
During the Restoration (1875-1923), relations between the
native bourgeoisie and the Navy authorities were somewhat
ambiguous. During the first two decades the Ferrol town council built
public monuments, developing a nationalist rhetoric linked to the
Navy, which was seen as a defender of the city, the country and the
colonial Empire. As early as 1869 a statue of Jorge Juan, the Navy
officer who had planned the original Ferrol was placed next to
‘Capitanía Palace’. In 1881 in the ‘Alameda’ King Alfonso XII
Ferrol
13
Urban History
eighteenth-century fortresses became obsolete. In 1898 the Spanish
fleet was annihilated in the Hispano-American War and the remnants
of the colonial Empire were lost. Ferrol citizens realized that the city
was openly vulnerable to enemy attacks, and even more so in the
advent of air warfare.
was the ‘golden age’ of a prosperous local middle-class, who,
influenced as they were by the innovative ideas and habits of the newly
arrived foreign experts, seemed to be able finally to rid themselves of
Navy tutelage and to lead a project of coexistence on the basis of the
strategies played out by political parties, employers’ organizations and
trade unions.
A public launching at the Spanish Society of Shipbuilding (c. 1925)
English employees of the Spanish Society of Shipbuilding (c. 1910-1920)
Source: Collective Work, A Memoria de Ferrol (Vigo, 2002), p. 101. Edicións Xerais
Source: Cadernos Ferrol Análisis, Ferrol en fotos un século atrás (Ferrol, 1998), p. 72
New forms of management were tried out in 1909, when the
Shipyards and part of the Dockyards were rented by a private company,
the ‘Spanish Society of Shipbuilding’, with a British held stake that
should have guaranteed the exchange of technological know-how.
Together with the warships that the Navy required, the company
looked for new clients in the civil sector. In 1910s and 1920s the
reform of Ferrol town (electrification, water supply and sewer system)
and the construction of a transport system (train, electric tramway and
commercial port) were concluded, helping to connect the city to the
outskirts and indeed the rest of the country. By 1930 Ferrol had 35,000
inhabitants, and was still the third most important city in Galicia. It
But Spain went a different way. After the Hispano-American
War the Spanish Navy received the new mission of assisting the
Army in struggles against civilians, either in the Rif War in Morocco,
or in order to put down any form of social conflict in Spain. Between
1910 and 1920 strike followed strike, and the Army and trade unions
confronted each other openly on the streets of Ferrol. In 1918 protests
against the high cost of living broke out as hundreds of women raided
food warehouses and forced prices to be lowered. In 1921, the deputy
mayor who also was the President of the local employer’s
organization was murdered in La Magdalena.43
Ferrol
14
Urban History
The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923-30) imposed a
provisional truce, as the ambiguities of the local policies of memory
clearly show. In 1927, the council government dedicated a plaque to
the founder of Spanish socialism Pablo Iglesias, and gave his name to a
square in Esteiro, where he was born in 1850.44 Some months later the
council authorities unveiled another plaque dedicated to two military
men at their native house in La Magdalena: the Franco brothers.
Francisco Franco was an army general, and a leader among the
veterans of the Rif War in Morocco. In 1926 he had visited Ferrol
where he was hailed as a national hero. The ‘Industrial and
Commercial Circle’ made him their honorary president, and the
president of the ‘Casino [Social Club] of Ferrol’ proposed the creation
of a monument dedicated to the people from the city who had died in
the ‘Africa War’.45 The tributes paid to Pablo Iglesias and Francisco
Franco involved two very different policies of memory: the former
corresponding to a working-class city with close ties to the socialist
internationalism, and the last to a military city committed to colonial
ventures.
From 1931 onwards, the II República underwent a
radicalisation process in both Ferrol and the rest of Spain. When the
‘Frente Popular’ won the general elections in February 1936, some
members of the political and financial elite decided to organize a
military rising. On 18th July it was started in Morocco by troops led by
Franco. Two days later the revolt triumphed in Ferrol, and the
memories of violence and segregation were once again brought to the
surface. Both the trade unions and the many seamen in the Dockyards
tried to resist, but they were poorly armed and were eventually forced
to surrender. The repression was a blood bath, its victims the shipyard
workers, the seamen and non-commissioned officers. During the first
two years of war 215 Navy personnel were executed following a trial
by court-martial, and 239 citizens ‘died after assaulting the police’,
that is, most of them were murdered without trial. The number of
executions and/or murders in the whole Ferrol region would amount to
2,000 during the three years that the war lasted.46
Spanish Society of Shipbuilding workers (1931)
Proclamation of the Second Republic, in front of the 'Capitanía' Palace (1931)
Source: Cadernos Ferrol Análisis, Empresa Nacional Bazán: 50 Aniversario (Ferrol,
1997), p. 40
During the war, Ferrol played a strategic role as the most
important pro-Franco centre for the construction, repair and
Source: Cadernos Ferrol Análisis, Ferrol en fotos un século atrás (Ferrol, 1998), p. 14
Ferrol
15
Urban History
provisioning of warships. It guaranteed the supremacy of the proFranco Navy in the Cantabrian Sea and played a key role in the
conquest of the mining and industrial centres located between Asturias
and the Basque Country, which had remained loyal to the II Republic.
Ferrol’s coercive spatial plan was updated in the sense that a single
-and accessible- enemy was identified both inside and outside: the
political repression against the working-classes became a central issue
in the victory against the Republic. The cemetery wall, the walls of San
Felipe and La Palma castles and the Dockyards became favourite
settings for executions. San Felipe castle, the military facilities in A
Graña, the Dockyards’ breakwater, and two vessels anchored there
became prisons, from which the convicts left to be executed. In the
eyes of the ‘maestranza’ who worked in the Dockyards, in the eyes of
those people who crossed the estuary by boat to get to work, the
facilities of the Ferrol of the Age of Enlightenment became places of
memory - of repression.
C.- ‘El Ferrol del Caudillo’.
The violent political repression lasted throughout the whole of
the post-war period: a further 1,000 people would be murdered in the
Ferrol region during the fifteen years immediately after the end of the
Civil War.47 The Franco regime resorted to policies of memory,
portraying the II Republic as a period dominated by poverty and
anarchy, and the military uprising and Civil War as a ‘Crusade’ against
communism and in defence of Catholicism. A segregated and
militarised Ferrol returned. The construction of monuments and the
organization of rituals dedicated to the ‘founding fathers’ were held in
La Magdalena:48 its main street was now called ‘General Franco
Street’; on 18th July 1940, ‘Anniversary of the [Military] National
Rising’, a ‘Cruz de los Caídos’49 was founded in Dolores Square; in
1949, the dictator unveiled a ‘Monument to the people from Ferrol
who died in the Africa campaigns’ located opposite the Dock Gate; and
the Parade Ground was totally remade when a huge Town Hall was
built in 1953.
Last honours for Admiral Luis de Castro (1939)
The Interior Minister salutes the public from the 'Capitanía' Palace (1938)
Source: Cadernos Ferrol Análisis, A Guerra en Ferrol (Ferrol, 1999), p. 38
Source: Portafolio: Entierro del Almirante Luis de Castro, 1939', en Ferrol Análisis, 17
(2002), p. 260
Ferrol
16
Urban History
At the same time the figure of the dictator was raised to the
status of the undefeated victor who brought with him peace and
prosperity, and to whom all ‘true and worthy Spaniards’ owed both
obedience and gratitude. The local elite decided to take advantage of
the dictator’s personal power, and exploit his personal connections
with the Ferrol region where he had been born and raised. In 1938,
coinciding with a visit to Ferrol by the Interior Minister, Serrano
Suñer (Franco’s brother-in-law), a major gathering was organized in
front of ‘Capitanía Palace’. The reason was a petition unanimously
approved by the council corporation to change the city’s name. It was
renamed ‘Ferrol del Caudillo’ (an honorary title given to the
dictator), and the petition was quickly approved by the Cabinet.
Franco’s triumphal entry into the city took place shortly after the war
had finished. He disembarked from a warship wearing the uniform of
Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. He returned to Ferrol on twenty
more occasions.50
to Franco as a gift. Since then and up until his death, he spent much of
his summer holidays there. Members of the government, members of
Spain’s elite also gathered round Franco in Meirás, some decisive
cabinet meetings took place there, and public funds were invested in
the area.51 The State’s aid and favour was unquestionably behind the
reactivation of the ship industry in Ferrol. The ‘Spanish Society of
Shipbuilding’ was now nationalized and renamed Bazán: it was
located in Esteiro and its main job was to supply the Navy. Astano was
established in 1941, in the adjoining town called Fene, its main
customer being the merchant marine. Astano experienced rapid
growth, above all from 1962 onwards when the ‘First State
Development Plan’ provided Ferrol with major investments. As the
ship industry employed more than 20,000 workers, the city doubled its
population, increasing from 35,000 inhabitants in 1935 to 77,000 in
1950.52
The Minister of Industry standing in front of the model of Astano (1964)
Meirás Manor House, Franco’s summer residence (1992)
Source: M.A.Pérez Rodríguez, Astano. Un estaleiro na ría (Ferrol, 2000), p. 82
Source: FOAT SL
More than a half of that growth corresponded to the population
of the adjoining town called Serantes, which Ferrol annexed in 1940.
The extra land meant that the city now spread beyond its walls53. The
suburban development work was carried out round the ‘Castilla Road’,
That same year, through the ‘Diputación Provincial’ (A Coruña
County Council), a local group of major figures managed to purchase
Meirás Palace, situated on the outskirts of A Coruña, which they gave
Ferrol
17
Urban History
renamed ‘Generalísimo’ Avenue (another honorary title given to the
dictator). At the end of 1940s, Recimil, a new working-class
neighbourhood, sprang up on one side of the ‘Generalísimo Avenue’
and just outside the city a thousand council houses were built. The
connection between the Avenue and La Magdalena was made by
building a magnificent ‘España Square’.54 It was surrounded on all four
sides by elegant buildings housing institutional headquarters and
homes for the Navy and Army officers, as well as for the Shipyard
managers.
came from the propellers of an old warship, and the statue was
inaugurated in ‘España Square’ in 1967.55 Spatial segregation was once
again present: on one hand, around ‘España Square’, the city of the
Navy and the middle-class, and on the other, the working-class city, in
the adjacent neighbourhood of Recimil; and the statue of Franco
standing between both of them.
Equestrian statue of Franco, in España Square (1999)
New Town Hall in the Parade Ground (c. 1955)
Source: Postcard collection. Property of Ferrol City Council
In 1959-64 some equestrian statues were built in honour of
Franco in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Santander. These statues
showed Franco full of vitality at a moment when the physical
degeneration associated with old age was starting to appear. In 1964, a
‘Commission for establishing a monument dedicated to Caudillo
Franco’ was organized on the initiative of the ‘Casino de Ferrol’. The
monument was financed by popular subscription. The bronze
equestrian statue, which showed the dictator wearing the uniform of
Commander-in-Chief of the Army, was made in Bazán. The metal
Ferrol
Source: Photograph by the author
But hardly five years later, in 1972, the first consequences of
the international economic crisis, as well as the first steps for the
industrial rationalization became evident in Ferrol. Besides, the agony
of the regime was taking place, as the dictator approached his own
death, and political parties and trade-unions of the opposition began
18
Urban History
making early tentative moves. On 10th March, Bazán workers
demonstrating outside the Shipyards were shot at by the police. The
result was two dead workers and sixteen wounded. The strike spread to
the factories, shops closed, and the police took control of the streets.
‘España Square’, which was a symbol of the dictator’s generosity,
would from then on be associated with memories of repression. In
1974, this new symbolic meaning was endorsed by the decision of the
pro-Franco town council to establish a statue dedicated to Camilo
Alonso Vega, a native of Ferrol, lieutenant-general of the Army, an
expeditious man on whom the dictator liked to rely to coordinate
political repression. Moreover, shortly after Franco’s death, the town
council decided to fix a big bronze plaque on the podium of the
equestrian statue, where his last will was written and he guaranteed
that his regime would outlive him.
D.- Between the transition to democracy and the rationalization of
the shipbuilding industry.
In 1975, the dictator’s death and the transition to democracy
created a new political situation. The fact that the Franco regime’s
political culture had fallen into disrepute, combined with the lack of
organisation amongst the social forces that had formerly provided
backing for it, plus the introduction of a new political culture based on
public liberties, universal suffrage and free elections would result in
the victory of the ‘Partido Socialista’, that was to govern Spain
between 1982 and 1996. Yet the re-organisation of the State based on
regional autonomy has enabled the conservative ‘Partido Popular’ to
remain in power in Galicia, a markedly rural region with an ageing
population. Ferrol and its neighbouring municipalities were an
exception. The working class population employed mainly in the ship
building industry and with a tradition in trade union movement and
organisational strategies provided the electoral basis that would place
left wing parties firmly in power in local authorities. From the first
democratic elections held in 1979, and up until 1987, Ferrol was
governed by a coalition headed by the ‘Partido Socialista’.56
Demonstration by Bazán workers, in España Square (10th of March 1972)
Meanwhile, the globalisation of the Spanish economy would
reveal that the enclave economic model the city had employed during
the Franco period was no longer viable. Spain’s entry into the
European Economic Community meant that the Spanish –Socialistgovernment implemented a programme of rationalization of the ship
industry which had a major impact on Ferrol’s shipyards. The
admission of Spain into NATO also caused a profound reorganization
of the Navy and the Army, and a significant reduction in the number of
armed forces in the city. Ferrol lost 10% of its population in just under
a decade. The trade unions and citizens’ associations constantly called
strikes and demonstrations, distancing themselves from the ‘Partido
Socialista’ that combined local and national government.57
Source: Fundación 10 de Marzo (ed.), España século XX: escenas do traballo (Santiago de
Compostela, 1999), p. 135
Ferrol
19
Urban History
The city of Ferrol, 1995
Galician government, controlled by the ‘Partido Popular’, and the
Spanish Socialist government. The transition to democracy was based
on an agreement between the more moderate forces of the Franco
regime and the opposition. Excluded from this agreement, the more
radical positions on both sides opted for terrorism and military
uprisings. Both phenomena would eventually have an impact on a
city in which the memory of Franco’s militarism and working-class
movement inevitably came into conflict, causing serious difficulties
for local authorities. Until 1985, two of the most outstanding
characters of the unsuccessful military coup of February 1981 were
imprisoned in military installations close to the Ferrol estuary: the
eighteenth-century La Palma castle housed Lieutenant-Colonel
Tejero, who had taken House of Congress; and Lieutenant-General
Milans del Bosch, who had sent tanks out onto the streets of
Valencia, was imprisoned in the Dockyards. Adherents of the
extreme right travelled long distances to the city in order to visit
them, which led to clashes with anti-Franco groups and placed the
Socialist local authority under considerable strain. 1987 saw the brief
appearance of ‘Exército Guerrilheiro do Pobo Galego Ceibe’ (the
‘Guerrilla Army for the Galician Free People’), the only -and smallterrorist group in the history of radical Galician nationalism. Two of
the group’s most significant acts were to vandalise Franco’s statue in
Ferrol twice, using explosives, the first time in 1987, coinciding with
the Partido Popular’s victory in the local elections, the second just a
year later. 59
Source: La Voz de Galicia (modified by the authors)
The new global economic and political conditions were the
cause of continuing political unrest in Ferrol. In the local elections that
followed, a total of six different political parties were returned,
including several ‘independent’ electoral groups. This led to the need
for coalition governments whose evident instability meant that they
were unable to remain in power for any considerable length of time.
The 1987 local elections were won by the conservative ‘Partido
Popular’; in 1989, a censure motion brought the left back into power;
in 1991, the council elections were won again by the ‘Partido Popular’;
just six months later, yet another censure motion meant that they were
unseated by the ‘Partido Socialista’; and in the 1995 elections the
‘Partido Popular’ again regained the majority.58
When such radical groups chose Ferrol for their protests, they
competed for the control of the city’s history, reinterpreting it to suit
their own needs. This fact provides us with a valuable insight in order
to understand recent local history. Ferrol’s spatial plan, militarised,
segregated and associated with an enclave economy, is the repository
of a memory of conflict between the Navy and the working classes,
which became even more inflamed following the military uprising of
1936 and the Franco regime. Any alternative development project for
the city required an in-depth reformulation of the city map, taking
This lack of stability was also partly the result of the
contradictions that existed in the Spanish political situation – and not
merely those arising from the tensions existing between the regional
Ferrol
20
Urban History
advantage of the new urban administrative powers conferred upon
local authorities by the democratic constitution. This affected not only
the interests of various social groups but also the city’s memory itself:
in other words, it provided an opportunity to reinterpret the city’s
history through the use of policies of memory that form the basis used
by the various political forces in order to obtain a solid electoral base.
In short, two policies of memory have coexisted in Ferrol: the first is
based on a working-class memory deeply rooted in the defence of the
ship building industry, which attacks the segregation of the city
brought about by the Naval base and military facilities and which
questions the monuments that recall the Franco regime; the second
defends the continuity of those places of memory of the pro-Franco
regime -considering them to be ‘apolitical monuments’- and the
segregation of the Navy installations, advocating the demolition of the
working class districts and the closure of the shipyards.
during the Franco period, which was scarcely 100 metres from España
Square. The two statues –that of the workers, that one of the dictatorwere placed practically opposite each other, each one in its own
neighbourhood.61
Detail of the monument to the Victims of 10 March, in Recimil (2003)
During its time in local power, in 1979-87, the left was unable
to oppose the rationalisation policies of Spanish Socialist government,
and made only timid attempts to question the memory of the Franco
period. The socialist local authority proposed the suppression of the
city’s name ‘del Caudillo’, but they did not dare to remove Franco’s
equestrian statue due to the strong opposition by part of the population
led by the Navy officers. Only at the end of their time in office, during
1986-7, did the town council seem to have found a means of paying
tribute to its more ‘progressive’ citizens associated with the defence of
the working classes. Two statues dedicated to social reformer
Concepción Arenal, and Pablo Iglesias -founder of the Spanish
Socialist Party- were situated at the foot of the Esteiro working-class
neighbourhood.60 When in 1989, a censure motion brought the left
back into power, they decided to dedicate a monument to the workers
who died on 10 March 1972: people whose memory had been
intensified since the democratic trade unions had named the
anniversary celebration as the ‘Working Class Day in Galicia’. In 1990
the monument in honour of the ‘Victims of the 10th of March’ would
be established in Recimil, the working-class neighbourhood built
Ferrol
Source: Photograph by the author
In turn, the conservative political forces remain opposed to the
idea of those places of memory of the pro-Franco regime being
eliminated, and have failed to suggest alternative celebrities which
could be commemorated. Only in 1999, during the final period of their
term in office, did they opt to erect a monument in honour of González
Llanos, the Navy officer responsible for the boom in the shipbuilding
industry during Franco’s period. It was positioned in the centre of the
new residential developments under construction at the time in the
former Esteiro, a neighbourhood that was expropriated and demolished
in 1974 by the last pro-Franco municipal corporation, claiming its
urban deterioration.62 The demolition of Esteiro erased the memory of
a proletarian Ferrol; La Magdalena, which averyone associated with
the Navy, absorbed the memory of the Ferrol of the Age of
Enlightenment. Twenty-five years later, at the end of the 1990s,
21
Urban History
various political actors started to call for another working-class
neighbourhood, Recimil, to be demolished. They claimed that its fifty
years of history had plunged it into a disastrous situation, and that it
was now located in what had become the city centre.63
this debate constituted a discussion and judgement regarding the causes
of the Civil War, the harshness of the Franco regime and the
‘agreement to forget’, upon which the transition to democracy had
supposedly been based.69 Ferrol’s new municipal corporation could
therefore justify its plans for development within the context of a more
solid memory policy. Indeed, the start of its term of office was marked
by the erection in 1999 of a statue in the ‘Alameda’ in honour of
Camilo Díaz Baliño, a member of local intelligentsia who was shot
during the early stages of the military uprising. Nearby, the first plaque
in honour of the victims of the pro-Franco repression was inaugurated
in 2002. And finally, a project to remodel ‘España Square’ was
designed, which involved the suppression of the equestrian statue. The
new Town Hall of Democracy would be built instead, and the
demolition of Franco period’s town hall in La Magdalena would
recreate the original plan of the ‘Parade Ground’. After a long debate,70
in July 2002 the council corporation moved the statue of Franco to a
less visible place. Most fittingly, this was to be the Navy Museum – in
the Dockyards, near the Dock Gate!
The 1999 council elections brought a mayor from the ‘Bloque
Nacionalista Galego’ (Galician Nationalist Party) to power, supported
by the Socialist Party. The new council government designed an
innovative urban policy based on four strategies. First, the reactivation
of the shipbuilding industry and the service activities related to the
Navy, all of which seemed to be favoured in 2000 by the fusion of the
civil and military sections of the Spanish public naval industry. The
integration of Astano and Bazán was finally consolidated in Ferrol.64
Besides, rumours claimed that Ferrol could be promoted as a NATO
naval base. Secondly, in 2001 the possibility arose to overcome the
city’s secular isolation, thanks to the commencement of work on a
large exterior port at the mouth of the estuary. This also coincided with
the start of work on the final section of the motorway that would
connect Ferrol with the Iberian Peninsula’s motorway network.65
Thirdly, the city was to become a hub for services and urban tourism
thanks to the fortresses, military installations, and La Magdalena, ‘an
example of a city of the Age of Enlightenment’. The demolition of the
Dockyard wall was seen as the starting point for a programme aimed at
‘opening the city up to the sea’.66 In December 2000, a campaign was
launched for the district to be declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO.67 And finally, urban renewal was promoted, but trying to
keep residents, thereby weakening the process of ‘gentrification’. A
‘Plan of Reform of La Magdalena’ was passed. And a rehabilitation
plan was drawn up for the neighbourhood of Recimil, which included
ownership, previously held by the council, being conferred upon the
tenants.
In spite of this, and following the elections held in May 2003,
the left-wing coalition that had governed Ferrol fell victim to its
internal conflicts, and lost its power to a right-wing coalition. Today,
the debate regarding the demolition of the Recimil working class
district is once again the order of the day, but the ‘Plan of Reform of
La Magdalena’ remains on course, and even though the plan to
demolish the Town Hall has long since been abandoned, there are no
plans to move the statue back to its original place. The monument to
Franco, situated in such a prominent position as ‘España Square’, was
not only a symbol that stigmatised the city and caused controversy
among the political forces and the citizens,71 but also an emblem of
dubious appeal to a NATO naval base and its recognition as a World
Heritage Site. Paraphrasing Paul Krugman we could say, ‘It’s the
economy, stupid!’. Anyway, it could also be argued to be quite simply
a question of dignity.
During 1999-2000, both the academic world and the media
began to debate regarding the overriding presence of places of memory
that recalled the Franco period to be found all over Spain.68 Essentially,
Ferrol
22
Urban History
Proposal to remove Franco’s equestrian statue (1983)
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27
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*
11
This essay includes some results from the research project ‘El Area Metropolitana
de A Coruña: Uso de la vivienda, participación ciudadana y planificación urbana’,
financed by the ‘Dirección de Investigación y Desarrollo’ of the ‘Xunta de Galicia’
(code PGIDT01SCX10201PR) in 2001-2003. I would like to thank Philip Ethington
for the patience he has shown by reading and exhaustively commenting the successive
versions of the original text and translation. I also would like to thank Xan Moreno,
Iñaki Mendizábal, José Javier Ruiz Ibáñez and Ester Nasarre for their comments on
the text, and Marisa López Schmidt for drawing the illustrations I-V, and for the
generous help and assistance she has given me in general.
1
M. Foucault, Surveiller et punir (Paris, 1975).
2
P. Nora, Les lieux de mémoire, 3 Volumes (Paris, 1984-93).
3
M. Gluckman, ‘An analysis of a social situation in Modern Zululand’, African
Studies, 14 (1940), 1-30, 147-74.
4
E.P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth
Century’, Past and Present, 50 (1971), 76-136. The author shows how traditions of
popular protest were associated with a set of political ideas regarding people’s
rights.
5
E.C. Cubillas, Desarrollo urbano y crisis social en Ferrol (Santiago de
Compostela, 1984).
6
It was headquarters of the Real Audiencia de Galicia until the early 19th century,
and later the capital of the new province of La Coruña.
7
‘Neighbours’. The meaning of the Spanish term is similar to that of ‘head of the
household’.
8
At the end of 18th century, Galicia, a 29,400 km² region, had 1,340,000
inhabitants. A mere 10% of the population lived in urban areas with more than
2,000 inhabitants.
9
See A. Vigo Trasancos, Arquitectura y urbanismo en el Ferrol del S.XVIII
(Santiago de Compostela, 1984) for the design and building of the Dockyards. See
also J.A. Rodríguez-Villasante, Arte e tecnoloxía na construcción de Ferrol, in the
Collective Work, Historia de Ferrol (A Coruña, 1988), 232-303.
10
J.L. Gómez Urdáñez, El proyecto reformista de Ensenada (Lleida, 1996).
Ferrol
After 1795, the introduction of steam pumps meant that convicts were no longer
needed.
12
A. Martín, ‘Levas honradas y levas de maleantes: los trabajadores forzosos en un
arsenal del Antiguo Régimen’, Obradoiro de Historia Moderna, 8 (1999), 231-260.
13
For the organization of the ‘maestranza’ see M. Santalla, La familia obrera,
Ferrol 1750-1936 (unpublished Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Ph.D.
thesis, 1995), Chapter 4.
14
In 1750, two vessels caught fire, in 1794 the sailcloth and rope factory were
burned down. J. Montero y Arostegui, Historia y descripción de la ciudad de
Ferrol (Ferrol, 1859), 45, 52-53.
15
Santalla, La familia obrera, 161.
16
M. Sánchez, ‘Ferrol 1750-1800’, Estudios Mindonienses, 7 (1991), 227-292.
17
‘Appendix II’, in Santalla, La familia obrera, 455-8
18
Ibid, 136.
19
By 1789, 2/3 of La Magdalena were built. See Vigo Trasancos, Arquitectura y
urbanismo, the reference work for the history and design of La Magdalena
neighbourhood. In the reign of Carlos III the Military Engineer Corps had been
created and its corresponding Academy, where future engineers learnt how to
design new cities. B. Castelo, ‘A nova poboación: o barrio da Magdalena’, in J.R.
Soraluce &X. Fernández (dirs.), Arquitecturas da provincia da Coruña. Vol. XIV:
Ferrol (A Coruña, 2001), 136.
20
Vigo Trasancos, Arquitectura y urbanismo, 237. There was a sentry box on
‘Capitanía Palace’ roof from where signals from the Dockyard’s guardsmen could
be received.
21
Ibid, 206, 255-8.
22
Santalla, La familia obrera, 401.
23
Ibid, 399.
24
Continuous provisions with regard to this matter are found in Sánchez, ‘Ferrol
1750-1800’.
25
‘Apéndice III: Hospicio para mujeres’, 1782. Quoted in Santalla, La familia
obrera, 458.
28
Urban history
45
26
Ibid, 177-8
B. Maíz, Resistencia, guerrilla e represión. Causas e Consellos de Guerra:
Ferrol, 1934-1955 (Vigo, 2003).
47
Ibid. The research, carried out using military archives, only goes as far as 1954,
since legislation prevents access to documents that are less than 50 years old.
48
B. Castelo, ‘A expansión urbana: O Ferrol del Caudillo’, in J.R Soraluce & X.
Fernández (dirs.), Arquitecturas, 212.
49
A monument dedicated to the dead who fought on the pro-Franco side during the
Civil War.
50
Llorca, ‘Ferrol Contemporáneo’, 381-382.
51
R. Villares, ‘Un truncado lugar de memoria’, La Voz de Galicia (12 November
2000), 28-30.
52
Cubillas, Desarrollo urbano, 63-4.
53
B. Castelo, ‘A la manera de epílogo: 1936-1940. La involución urbanística’, in
Ferrol: Morfología urbana, 483-500.
54
‘España Square’ had already been planned in 1940 around a monument dedicated
to Franco. As it surpassed the most urgent needs –and budget- of the city, the
square was not established until 1953.
55
J. González, ‘La escultura pública de Ferrol’, Estudios Mindonienses, 7 (1991),
293-330.
56
J.M. Cardesín, ‘Redes flexibles y redes rígidas: urbanización, producción, y
transporte en la Galicia litoral’, in B. Ruiz & J.M. Cardesín (coord.), Antropología
Hoy: Teorías, técnicas y tácticas (Murcia, 1999), 117-135.
57
Ibid.
58
Ibid.
59
J.M. Cardesín, ‘Que faire de la statue de Franco? Mémoire historique et action
politique à Ferrol (Espagne)’, Histoire Urbaine, 6 (2002), 131-150.
60
Castelo, ‘A expansión urbana’, 264, 268. And González, ‘La escultura pública de
Ferrol’.
61
M. Santalla, Los sucesos de Marzo de 1972 (Santiago de Compostela, 1996).
In 1797, 61% of the ‘vecinos’ were paid by the Navy. A. Martín, Una sociedad
en cambio. Ferrol a finales del Antiguo Régimen (Ferrol, 2003), 34.
27
‘Archivo Histórico Nacional, Estado’, File 74-A. In A. Martín, ‘Espacio urbano,
población y sectores profesionales en El Ferrol del Antiguo Régimen’, Estudios
Mindonienses, 18 (2002), 1098-9.
28
Ibid, 1099. This division was legally sanctioned in 1845.
29
Ibid, 1106-9. The most skilled workers of the ‘maestranza’, the Navy noncommissioned officers and the Quartermaster Staff lived in both neighbourhoods.
30
Montero y Arostegui, Historia y descripción, 104-5.
31
E.P. Thompson, ‘Rough Music’, in Customs in Common (New York, 1993).
32
F. Tomás y Valiente, El derecho penal de la Monarquía Absoluta (Siglos XVI,
XVII y XVIII), (Madrid, 1992). I am currently working on an article that discusses
this topic.
33
‘Archivo del Reino de Galicia, Real Audiencia, Causas’, File 73, nº 20. I found
the reference in Santalla, La familia obrera, 171.
34
Castelo, ‘A nova poboación’, 150-1.
35
In Ferrol, in 1805 the Navy had dedicated an ephemeral tumulus to the Spanish
victims of the battle of Trafalgar. See J. Varela, ‘La muerte del héroe’, Historia
Social, 1 (1988), 19-28.
36
Martín, ‘Espacio urbano’, 1114-16.
37
The police force created in Spain in 1844.
38
A public washing place where women would wash clothes.
39
P. Nieto, Memoria acerca de las condiciones higiénicas y estado sanitario de El
Ferrol (Ferrol, 1895), 32.
40
Santalla, La familia obrera, 348-9.
41
A. Gomis, La insurrección de Ferrol de 1872 (A Coruña, 2000).
42
C. Reyero, La escultura conmemorativa en España (Madrid, 1999).
43
G. Llorca, ‘Ferrol Contemporáneo’, in Collective Work, Historia de Ferrol (A
Coruña, 1998), 344-6.
44
B. Castelo, Ferrol: Morfología urbana y arquitectura civil, 1900-1940 (A
Coruña, 1991), 175.
Ferrol
46
29
Urban history
62
Castelo, ‘A expansión urbana’, 252-3. Three years later, 500 families of Esteiro,
who had been temporarily accommodated in prefabricated huts, were still waiting
for the council houses under construction on the new housing estate called
Polígono de Caranza. All these families would participate in a mass squat in the
new dwellings.
63
See ‘Nuevo Barrio de Recimil’, in Un proyecto de ciudad (political manifesto).
64
La Voz de Galicia (19 July 2000), 45-7.
65
Dossier ‘Comunicados con el futuro’, La Voz de Galicia (15 February 2003).
66
J. Gelpi, Una ciudad irrepetible. Ferrol ante el futuro. Conversión de
infraestructuras Navales Militares (A Coruña, 1994).
67
Fundación Ferrol Metrópoli, Ferrol de la Ilustración hacia el Patrimonio de la
Humanidad (Ferrol, 2001). The text is a catalogue for the exhibition organised that
same year by the Foundation, which received the institutional backing of both the
municipal corporation and the Autonomous Government of Galicia.
68
Cardesín, ‘Que faire de la statue de Franco?’.
69
This question was the subject of two monographic issues of the annual journal of
the ‘Asociación [Española] de Historia Contemporánea’. E. Moradiellos (ed.),
‘Dossier La Guerra Civil’, Ayer, 50 (2003), 11-234. And C. Mir (ed.), ‘Dossier La
represión bajo el Franquismo’, Ayer, 43 (2001), 11-190.
70
Cardesín, ‘Que faire de la statue de Franco?’.
71
A survey carried out by the newspaper La Voz de Galicia in November 2000,
showed that the population was divided by almost 50% about the issue whether it
was convenient to suppress the statue or not.
Ferrol
30
Urban history