Liceu

The Liceu opera house, inaugurated in 1847, was gutted by fire only fourteen years later. It was immediately rebuilt by Josep Oriol Mestres on an even grander scale, with 4,000 seats (second only to Milan’s La Scala).

As a symbol of the élite, the Liceu was the target of the most notorious of all the city’s Anarchist attacks, on 7 November 1893. During the second act of William Tell two bombs were hurled from the upper gallery into the orchestra – a bull’s-eye strike on the bourgeoisie.

The final toll was 22 dead and 50 wounded; in the chaos that followed, the perpetrator, Santiago Salvador, calmly stood by the front door and watched them carry out the bodies. Justice caught up with him in Zaragoza and he was executed the next year, singing the Anarchist anthem until the garrotte cut him off mid-voice.