Fossar de les Moreres

Barcelona · Spain · Cemetery

Fossar de les Moreres — Barcelona · Spain · Cemetery

"No traitor lies in the mulberry grave" – beneath the square by Santa Maria del Mar rest the fallen of 1714, and every eleventh of September they are said to rise.

The quiet square beside the basilica of Santa Maria del Mar served for centuries as the parish burial ground, and during the siege of Barcelona in 1714 it became a mass grave for the city's fallen defenders. Legend tells of the gravedigger who refused to bury his own grandson, killed fighting on the Bourbon side – 'no traitor is buried in the mulberry grave', words now set in iron above the site. An eternal flame burns over the dead, and folk belief holds that the buried spirits climb out of the earth on the night of 11 September, the anniversary of the city's fall, to muster once more at the walls. Visitors describe the ground as cold even in midsummer heat.

FAQ

Where is Fossar de les Moreres located?

Fossar de les Moreres is in Barcelona, Spain.

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Image: 1997 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons