Triumphant entry of the National Army into Barcelona

Our city has not been conquered; it has been won by the irrefutable force of reason of the New Spain

The fugitives avidly devoted themselves to fire. The magnificent building of the National Employers’ Association was abandoned by the CNT-FAI after they had set fire to it, though they did not manage to burn it down. In order to cover their tracks and feeling a natural urge to flee as quickly as possible, they brilliantly set about burning the offices as they found them. The Marxists tried to do the same at the Colón, whose rooms and offices were set on fire without any concern for whether the wind then blowing might spread the fire to houses on the same block, many of whose apartments were occupied by refugees. The same thing also occurred in the so-called Carlos Marx, the Equestrian Circle on Passeig de Gràcia, though the fire went out once all the paper and filth had been consumed.

The Colón building suffered the consequences more than any other, but the firemen were able to put out the flames after a brief effort.

Meanwhile, the soldiers of Spain went about completing the cordon around the city and began to enter it between four and five o’clock in the afternoon.

La Vanguardia, 27 January 1939