The day women took up arms to defend Girona

GironaOn this day, 216 years ago, a Girona, greatly weakened by months of siege by Napoleon's troops, managed to repel yet another attack by the French army. It was September 19, 1809, and that day would be celebrated until the Franco regime as the Great Day of Girona, on which absolutism managed to defeat an army of republican values. Only a few voices, such as that of the Girona-born writer and journalist Prudenci Bertrana, would dare to question the official story, which led to public rejection, arrest, and having to move to Barcelona.

But the feat of September 19 was more than fleeting. Three months later, the crazed Spanish general Mariano Álvarez de Castro finally capitulated and opened the gates of a city that in little more than a year and a half had lost half of its population of just 10,000 inhabitants (now more than 100,000), whether due to war, hunger, or disease. These facts are unknown to most young people today because little is taught in schools.

We talk about the siege of Girona during the French War or also known as the War of Independence. The square that gives its name to one of the city's liveliest squares. Bars and restaurants surround a sculpture of a heroic Álvarez de Castro who, during the years of the Trial, used to hold an estelada in his hands, demonstrating how words take on new meanings over the centuries.

Red ribbons on his arm

In the sculpture, the general commands a soldier atop a rifle with French corpses on top. What is missing in this monument or any other in the city—except for a mausoleum in the Church of San Félix—is any allusion to one of the great protagonists of the sieges: a group of two hundred women who joined together to create the first female military company in the State. It was the Company of Santa Bárbara, whose members were better known as the Barbarians, identified by a red ribbon on their arm.

Their task was to assist the wounded and carry water and liquor to the front line, but contemporary documents place them at the front, wielding a weapon if necessary. This is reflected in Teresa Sagrera and Ramon Gasch's historical novel set in Girona. Blood ties (Columna, 2022), in which they explain the sieges of Girona from a female perspective after carefully documenting the events. "They are women who organized themselves, and we have evidence that they already existed during the first siege of Girona," explains Sagrera. "Their task was to provide relief and distribute ammunition. That doesn't mean that they didn't end up using it while they were there. But their primary objective was to defend the city in the most humanitarian sense."

Already in the writings of the period, the general who led the French, Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr, highlights the role of the women of Girona. "The slightest breath of wind would blow away and reveal the ribbons that distinguished the women of Santa Barbara, some of whom won on this journey the rewards and distinctions of the brave," he wrote in his campaign diary in 1836. He highlighted the red ribbons they wore as a symbol of the absolute king Ferr beret the flag of the French Revolution.

19th Century Heroines

The passage of time and the interest of the monarchical and religious powers in glorifying the role of the citizens in the sieges of Girona turned the Barbarians into true heroines. "Even the French confessed that they were fighting not only against soldiers, but against women who looked like Amazons," wrote the historian and liberal politician Emili Grahit in 1896. History of the sieges of GironaThe painter Ramon Martí Alsina immortalized them in three paintings: the enormous Girona's big day (hung in the Josep Irla auditorium of the Government delegation in Girona), The heroines of Girona (in the plenary hall of the Girona Provincial Council) and The Company of Santa Barbara (at the back of the MNAC).

In practice, according to Sagrera, "these women, most of them young and childless, defended their homes," regardless of their ideologies. "Girona was completely devastated," she adds. "Knowing they had nothing to gain, Álvarez de Castro led the city to collective suicide." Although there is no evidence that they were paid or received rations during the war, some of the commanders did end up receiving a lifetime pension, as was the case of Maria Àngela Bivern, born in Palol d'Onyar and who enlisted at the age of 22, being single.

Bivern's squadron met in the Plaça del Vino, while the rest met in the Plaça de Sant Pere, the Plaça del Hospicio, and the Plaça del Mercadal. Sagrera also emphasizes that they had a "democratic organization" among themselves and regrets that they were not given much consideration. "They were not considered part of the war," he concludes. "But if it weren't for their work, with no men in the city because they had gone on the Girona Crusade, who would have taken care of the children, the elderly, and the humanitarian supplies?"