Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya

This guide to the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona centers on Lluis Companys, president of the Catalan government, and the balcony above the door where he declared statehood on 6 October 1934. It follows what that declaration cost him: arrest within a day, a prison sentence, a return to these rooms through the Spanish Civil War, and a flight into France as Barcelona fell in 1939. You'll also hear about the gothic parliament hall behind these walls and the orange-tree courtyard planted in 1534, four centuries older than the story that defines this balcony.