Barcelona pays tribute to its Olympics that never took place

On July 19, 1936, Barcelona was to have hosted the People’s Olympics, but just two days before the Games were to start, a military uprising against the Spanish Republican government began. It marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and eventually led to Francisco Franco’s 40-year-long dictatorship.

Now, 81 years later, Barcelona has paid tribute to the athletes, organizers and volunteers who were to have taken part in the 1936 Games, at a moving event, organized by the Catalan foreign affairs ministry.   

According to the Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, it was important and necessary to celebrate this event because of “the long silence, the unfortunate oblivion and even disdain” shown towards it.

“The non-celebration of the People’s Olympics due to the 1936 coup turned the field of sports into a symbol," said Romeva. The foreign minister attended the event accompanied by Barcelona city council representative, Jaume Asens, who also stressed the importance of the tribute, saying that “Catalonia’s worst enemy is forgetting.”

The 1936 People’s Olympics, which was an attempt to offer an alternative to the Olympic Games organized by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime in Berlin, made Barcelona stand out as “the ideal place” to fight fascism, Romeva said. And he added that Catalonia has fought social and national oppression for decades.