Fossar de Les Morenes

The Fossar de les Moreres is a place of great symbolic importance where the weight of history occupies a central place. On one side of Santa Marián del Mar we find the Fossar de les Morenes, a square located in the Ribera neighborhood, where the War Memorial of the Fallen in the War of Succession of 1714 is observed. With the flame always lit a cauldron stands in front of a red granite wall on the red brick floor as well.

The wars of succession occurred when the Catalan leaders joined forces with the British Crown to fight for Charles of Austria for the throne of Spain, while Castile was favorable to Philip d'Anjou. When England withdraws, the Principality of Barcelona alone decides to confront France, which proposed Philip V as King. Philip's French troops take over the city in the same way. September 11 has become the National Holiday of Catalonia, the Diada. That day in 1714, Barcelona surrendered to the Bourbons and a time of repression against the Catalans began, with the abolition of laws and institutions.

In 1989, architect Carme Fiol uncovered the exact place where the victims of that site were buried, demolishing the houses there and covering it with red brick. The striking cauldron represents the living memory of those who fell in that war, and the red of the bricks and the wall, the blood shed during the taking of the city by the Bourbon troops, after a long siege. Although it was formerly a parish cemetery, starting in the 19th century it was converted into a square.