Historian Ricard Conesa Sánchez presents his latest book, La ciutat que recorda. Memòries de guerra i dictadura a l’espai públic de Barcelona, at the University of Barcelona on September 16, 2026.
Published by Icaria Editorial and the Barcelona City Council, with the collaboration of the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM), the book explores the social history of memory sites connected to the Spanish Civil War and the anti-fascist struggle in Barcelona, from the end of the Franco dictatorship to the beginning of the 21st century.
Through the study of commemorations, monuments, territorial markers, and symbolic disputes, Conesa examines how institutions and grassroots movements have contested narratives of the past in the urban space. The book approaches memory sites not as static places, but as contested spaces shaped by resignification, appropriation, and resistance, where urban policies, ideological disputes, and social demands intersect.
The author will be joined by historian Ricard Vinyes, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona, and Núria Ricart, Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona. The discussion will be moderated by historian Celeste Muñoz Martínez (UNED).
