Underground monument
This pantheon was built in 1904 by the city architect Pere Falqués, a modernist architect known to many for his design of the benches on Passeig de Gràcia. The pantheon is a memorial crypt dedicated to the 734 fallen soldiers who left Barcelona for the war and perished in the so-called "Cuba-Philippines catastrophe."
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Like most European countries at the time, Spain sought to preserve its last American colonies, so fruitful for the European economy. This led to war against the United States. The consequences of the conflict were Spain's defeat and the loss of its colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, all three of which came under US control.
The Pantheon is a memorial to the victims of the conflict. It reproduces a colonial fort, with a large cross and other elements of a military structure, such as gargoyles representing cannons.
The stairs lead to four semi-underground crypts filled with numbered tombstones, and at the entrance to each room is a plaque with the names and numbers corresponding to each of the soldiers.
The monument was paid for by the City Council during the war, but was finally unveiled after Spain's defeat in 1904. The soldiers' remains were buried in various cemeteries around the city. They were collected and made into a mass grave.
More than 3,000 soldiers from Catalonia died in the war with the United States, a third of whom were from Barcelona.
Before the Spanish Civil War, this pantheon was filled with bouquets of flowers. Representatives of veterans' associations regularly came here to pay their respects. Now, only those who remember the country's former glory occasionally make an appearance.
