Once upon a time, there was a tale of matches, robberies, murders... No one escapes. Especially from any town in Aragón. But what about the culprits?
The main culprits were the Catalan separatists who invaded this area. All the churches in these villages have been desecrated and burned.". So, who burned Sijena in August 1936?
"The Royal Monastery of Sigena, occupied by Sanjuanista nuns and a veritable art museum, and the old Cathedral of Rueda, a national monument, have also been looted, with many of their artworks destroyed and some sculptures removed, which are believed to have been sold abroad. The civil forces of the Alto Aragonese region are completely subservient to the Catalanist Reds.Amen.
Thousands of such stories were told from August 1936 onwards and multiplied in 1939. Stories copied, reproduced, verbatim. Fake news. Copy-paste. Clones, boots, which spread, educate, point fingers. Repeat: Catalans burn and steal. These are biological lies. They are passed down from parents to children. From the 20th to the 21st century. The fiction of a barbecue made by the revolution, justified by Francoism, defended by democracy. And the Catalans in the middle, condemned, and explained away by others. Here's a dog, here's a cat... Lobotomized.
The lie repeats in 2025 that in 1936 Josep Gudiol stole the paintings from Sijena. The truth is that Josep Gudiol saved the paintings from Sijena and that the Catalans didn't burn the monastery. Gudiol, architect. Head of the Committee for Artistic Rescue of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat. He's going to hell. Only armed with hands and words can he rescue art when the devil throws a big party. But Gudiol arrives in Sijena: "I couldn't hold back my tears in front of the ashes of one of the world's greatest monuments." And he saves the remains of the paintings (50%). Sijena, bishopric of Lleida for eight centuries. Monastery built from nothing in 1188. After the conquest by the Count of Barcelona and the Count of Urgell. Heaven on earth for the Catalan-Aragonese confederation. Thank you.
Paintings reconstructed, paid for, deposited in the MNAC since 1940. But when Gudiol returns from exile in 1941, he doesn't see them. What he sees is a purification tribunal. Accused. Of having been a Republican officer. Of having stolen works of art. Falsely guilty. He defends himself. He writes a report that is a downpour. He was acquitted. But now they're accusing him again. Does he want to return in August 1936?
Alternate history. More fiction about fiction. Josep Gudiol can't save the paintings of Sijena. They're burning. They're gone. Problem solved. Today peace, tomorrow glory. It's said in one of the episodes from that Old Testament depicted in the monastery's mural paintings. Genesis 3:19: "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." Aragon seeks the alternate history of dust. Fiction, lies, the match. And we ask ourselves, like the soldier-writer Joan Sales, like all those who lived in that burning Aragon: "What do we gain from having defeated the barbarians if we allow ourselves to be defeated by barbarism?" It's not art: it's the Vile War of 1936 burning, burning us. The eternal utopia of the barbecue of hatred and lies.
