Plenzia nr Bilbao

12th May

The Basque region has as one of its own iconic sites, Gernika. This demanded a visit even though there is little left to reveal the awfulness of the events of 26th April 1937. It seems that Franco had the town rebuilt within a few years, probably so that the event could be forgotten, cast into the past and so the people would to come to see it as a place of pilgrimage or remembrance.

It is very difficult when one arrives in the town as it is like any other town. One thing I did notice was that it sits in a valley surrounded by hills and that may have contributed to its choice as a site to bomb. It will be interesting to see what Paul Preston has to say on this matter when I get to read one of his books on the subject. One thing IO have already discovered is that writing on the Civil War is huge and he reports that something like 2000 books were published in a ten year period up to the early 2000's.

The only place that really exists in the town is a museum called the Peace Museum. It was nearly empty when we visited it but its exhibits, which included some people talking about their knowledge of the events of 1937 and how they came by that knowledge was moving. I imagine that one was not permitted to have memories of the events of that day under Franco as he would have suppressed it. Anyway, the bombing was justified in his eyes, I suppose. There was a little original footage but interestingly, and something I do not recall having seen before was the use of photographs from today overlaid with photos from that time. Such an approach added to the way in which one can see the past through the town of the present.

So it was well worth the visit even though the drive was a little challenging!