In the Footsteps of Repression:
A Walk Through Manresa’s Memory
29 August, Festa Major Manresa 2025
The Festa Major in Manresa is not only about music and parades. These days, the city also invites people to remember another chapter — the years of Francoist repression.
The tour leads through the streets of the old town, where underground print shops once operated, producing the newspaper Bages Popular and leaflets that sent dozens of people to prison.
The guide shows the facades of old houses, with reproductions of newspapers and documents hanging on the walls.
The group stops at a building where printing equipment was kept, and at the Castellers’ hall, which has become a place to tell stories of solidarity and resistance.
On the faces of the participants there is both curiosity and seriousness: a festival is still a festival, but Manresa’s history holds heavy pages.
This walk reminds us that behind the façades of quiet streets lies the memory of the struggle for freedom.
And today, this memory returns to the citizens — not as a museum piece, but as part of a living conversation about the past.
