Judicialized the eviction of the Knights Legionnaires of Barcelona

In one of the anthropologically interesting images of the interior part of the enclosure posted on its Facebook page, a mural with a declaration of intent: “The legion follows this motto and this faith: kneeling only before God.” Perhaps taking refuge in that maxim, the Brotherhood of the Ancient Knights Legionnaires of Barcelona barricaded itself last February in the old Sant Andreu barracks, where it is still its headquarters.

More than a month and a half after the end of the ultimatum, on February 10, the Free Zone Consortium (CZF) and the Barcelona’s town hall have finally filed the announced lawsuit against the devotees of the Christ of the Good Death thus initiating the judicial eviction procedure, once it was already more than evident that the negotiation route was not going to get them anywhere.

Santi Serra, one of the Sant Andreu activists who has most insisted on the need to expel the legionnaires from the land, has received the news of the legalization of the matter with a little enthusiasm “it was about time” and has underlined that, if the vindicated lawsuit has finally been filed, it has been “thanks to the pressure of the neighbors and the neighbors, not by political will“.

In the dividing wall that can be seen from the street -in the year 2022, in Barcelona-, the shield of the legion is seen together with the impressive name of the group: Brotherhood Knights Legionnaires of Barcelona and two flags, the Spanish and the Catalan. Below, two plates. The one on the right with the message “legionnaires to fight” and the one on the left with a “legionnaires to die”. In other murals displayed on his Facebook page, slogans like “our race is not dead yet” or “loyalty, bravery, discipline”.

Despite the fact that the controversy and discomfort in the neighborhood goes back a long way, the matter became absolutely incomprehensible in the eyes of the mobilized neighbors in 2013, when the Free Zone Consortium -entity that depends directly on the State- yielded during the government of Mariano Rajoy give formally and free of charge a plot of 5,000 square meters in the old barracks of Sant Andreu to three militaristic entities: the Brotherhood of Provisional Sergeants, the Brotherhood of Mutilated Knights, and the Brotherhood of Ancient Legionary Knights.

Until 2003, those from ‘The Bridegroom of Death’ met in a room on the premises that they used as their social headquarters and canteen, but for almost a decade now they have, in addition to a large plot of public land on which to stage parades. Some land that, on the one hand, had been for years claimed by neighbors for public facilities and, on the other, they border on the courtyard of the Eulàlia Bota school, whose students see some of the aforementioned murals on the way to school every day.

After the battle of the neighbors to rescind an agreement that they could not understand, finally the CZF, also pressured by the city council, made a move. offered first 9,400 euros to Provisional Sergeants and Mutilated Knights and 12,600 to the Ancient Legionary Knights to leave the site voluntarily, but initially none of the three entities accepted the money. Over time, after a second burofax and the notice that the next step would be the lawsuit, the first two did accept the pact. The Ancient Knights Legionnaires, on the other hand, refused and are still there “until a judge says so“; something that the plaintiffs hope will happen soon.