Les Corts prison's history

The Provincial Prison for women in Barcelona, the main female penitentiary along the First Francoism, was originally a Correccional General de Dones (General Correctional for Women) of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government,  1936-1939).

E.g., 2024

Opening of the new General Correctional for Women

The revolutionary outbreak that crushed the attempted military coup was the main impulse behind the transfer of powers in terms of correctional services from the State to the Catalan Government. This was enacted by the Statute of Autonomy of 1932 and suspended later in the wake of the repression following the insurrection attempt of October 1934.

1937
March
AHCB-AF. Pérez de Rozas, Carlos. 006202. Demolition works of Presó Vella in Barcelona. October 29th, 1936.
AHCB-AF. Pérez de Rozas, Carlos. 006202. Demolition works of Presó Vella in Barcelona. October 29th, 1936.

Imprisonment of Otília Castellví: the ‘antifascist’ prisoners

On 21 August 1937, the young Otília Castellví (Gijón, 1917), a member of the POUM) (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) entered Les Corts in the context of the punitive raids following the so called ‘May incidentsof 1937.  

1937
August
Otília Castellví in Germany. Winter 1940.1941. Family Archive
Otília Castellví in Germany. Winter 1940.1941. Family Archive