User:FormerIP/orwell

Itinerary

 * On leaving the Taragona metro stop on Carrer Taragona, stand with the large tinted glass building to your left and walk to the next intersection. To your right is Carrer de Valencia. On the corner of the two streets are three modernist residential high-rises, which stand on the site of the former Cuartel de Lepanto, a military barracks renamed Caserna Lenin during the Spanish Revolution. It was here that Orwell received his military training after joining the POUM militia in December 1936. This period features in chapter one of Homage to Catalonia, where barracks are described as "a block of splendid stone buildings with a riding school and enormous cobbled courtyards". A photograph exists which is thought by some to show Orwell with his fellow soldiers during training. Unfortunately, no trace of the barracks remains. After his training, Orwell was sent in January 1937 by train to the front at Alcubierre in Aragon.


 * Continue along Carrer Taragona for about 250m. To your left, you will see the Barcelona-Sants train station. This is not much to see, but it is the station from which Orwell would have left for the front. Go inside and down into the metro station. Get the L3 (green line) in the direction of Trinitat Nova.


 * Get off at Drassanes and take the exit for La Rambla. Set off in a northerly direction on La Rambla, so that you pass the Centre d'Art Santa Monica on your left. Continue for about 100m, after which you will see a monument to the playwright Frederich Soler. He is sitting on top of the memorial, looking further up the street. Behind him is a building of the prestigious Pompeu Fabra University. This used to be the Hotel Falcon.