The plane of the queen elizabeth ii from Seville landed in Barcelona the afternoon of October 20, 1988. He had been leading British royalty for 35 years and had never set foot in Spain. He wouldn’t do it again. Yes had been to Gibraltar in 1954 to proclaim and defend the strategic importance of the Rock, but that’s another story… Let’s focus on his stay in the Catalan capital, where fell in love with Cobi and Picasso and opened the premises of an English school in the city, the Kensington School, in the upper area of the city, not far from the Bruc barracks. Everything, from the hand of the kings Juan Carlos and Sofiaand always accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.
If you are wondering which hotel Isabel II stayed at, don’t worry about the pools because she spent the night in the royal yacht Britannia, a vessel launched in 1938 and which was in service until 1997. The agenda for October 21 was full of handrails and cultural and Olympic visits. First thing in the morning, walk through Sant Jaume, where members of the La Crida movement They protested the visit of the british sovereign with a salvo of firecrackers and fireworks. The chronicles of the day explain that many interpreted the act more as a tribute than as a boo.
Duel of gifts
The queen conversed first with Jordi Pujol and then, in the building opposite, with Pasqual Maragall. The former gave him a silver replica of the Saint George statue who in 1536 sculpted Melchor Bravo and that can be seen in the homonymous chapel of the Palau de la Generalitat, which Isabel II also visited. Then, at the town hall, the mayor stretched out a bit more and handed him some authentic engravings of Thomas Pifarre and printed by Council of Guilds of Barcelona in 1764 on the occasion of the arrival in the Catalan capital of Carlos III.
Delicious were the anecdotes of the Duke of Edinburgh with some deputies present in the Generalitat. “republican what?” he snapped at Joan Hortalafrom Esquerra, while he promised to give a tie to an Initiative graduate.
From there, and by car despite the proximity, a procession of almost fifty vehicles went to the Picasso museum, not without before collapse the Via Laietana, which had to be cut down to make way for the blue blood parade. Half an hour of art was enough for the queen, although, they say, she was enchanted by the works of the painter from Malaga.
Reception and towards Mallorca
They said goodbye to Ciutat Vella and went up to Montjuïc, where they briefly visited the Olympic Stadium, which in those days was going through a deep phase of sheet metal and painting. Isabell II, who by then already had five grandchildren, was infatuated with Cobi and the symbols devised by Javier Marshal. He left the place with a good handful of 1992 Games t-shirts, badges and stickers to distribute in London among his own.
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They came down from the mountain and went to the Kensington School, a school founded in 1966 and that year released dependencies. Not far from there, in the Palau de Pedralbes, I was expecting a lunch and another handrail with some 140 guests from Catalan civil society.
Overcome that trance, in the evening, the British monarchs held a reception on their ship. Once all the cups were emptied, they weighed anchor and put heading to Majorca, where they spent two days with Juan Carlos and Sofía. Arriving in London, he hands out t-shirts to the kids. And at some point in this story, the future king of england walked around the house in a Cobi t-shirt.