Poliorama Plaque 2024

The May Days in Barcelona, 1937

“[Georges] Kopp took in the scene at a glance, pushed his way forward … and told us in several languages that we had got to avoid bloodshed. Then he stepped out on to the pavement and, in sight of the Civil Guards, ostentatiously took off his pistol and laid it on the ground…

“Kopp took me upstairs again and explained the situation. We had got to defend the P.O.U.M. buildings if they were attacked, but the P.O.U.M. leaders had sent instructions that we were to stand on the defensive and not open fire if we could possibly avoid it. Immediately opposite there was a cinematograph, called the Poliorama, with a museum above it, and at the top, high above the general level of the roofs, a small observatory with twin domes…

“The next three days and nights I spent continuously on the roof of the Poliorama… I was in no danger, I suffered from nothing worse than hunger and boredom, yet it was one of the most unbearable periods of my whole life.”

(George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, chapter 10)

On May 15 2024 a ceremony was held at the Poliorama. It was addressed by the President of the scientific institute, which owns the Poiliorama, followed by Professor Miquel Berga, and then Richard Blair, son of George Orwell.

Below is a photograph of Richard Blair, son of George Orwell, and Quentin Kopp, son of Georges Kopp, taken on the occasion of their visit to the Poliorama in 2013.

*

Newspaper report of event:

Una placa recuerda a Orwell en el lugar de La Rambla de Barcelona donde defendió al POUM en 1937