The family of Gustau Muñoz has raised alarm after discovering that the plaque honouring him on Barcelona’s Calle Ferran has not been reinstated following years of building works.
Muñoz, a 16-year-old militant for Catalan independence and communism, was killed on 11 September 1978 when a Spanish police officer opened fire during the Diada protests. His death is remembered as one of the last politically motivated killings of the late Francoist period. The plaque marking the site — number 34, Calle Ferran — was first installed by family and friends a year after his death.
For more than three years, the building had been covered in scaffolding for extensive rehabilitation. Now, with the works completed and the façade uncovered, the plaque has not returned. Marc Muñoz, the victim’s brother, expressed the family’s distress: ‘The plaque has disappeared, we don’t know where it is.’
Barcelona City Council had previously committed to restoring or replacing the memorial, but as the National Day of Catalonia approaches, when annual tributes to Muñoz take place, its absence will be especially visible. Esquerra Republicana has already lodged a formal request in the council calling for the plaque’s recovery.
The family is urging the municipal government to create an official memorial site, which would provide greater protection against future removals. They are also calling for the judicial process into Gustau Muñoz’s death to be reopened, noting that his case remains one of around sixty killings during the late Franco era that were never prosecuted.
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