The Golden City - Salamanca, Spain

Wednesday 8.00pm BBC2

 

Michael Portillo is off to the continent in his new railways series, and he begins somewhere close to his heart: Salamanca, around 100 miles northwest of Madrid, was the home of his father, Luis, before he was forced to flee Spain in 1939.  “Salamanca was one of the great passions of his life,” says Portillo. “He adored the city and its university. During his long exile, missing Salamanca was probably one of the worst parts of his pain, and not being able to teach at the university ever again was a catastrophe for him.”

 

Portillo’s father, a liberal intellectual, was a professor of civil law there until the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, when General Franco led a Nationalist uprising against the Government, the democratically elected Second Republic. Salamanca fell within a few days.  “Luckily, he wasn’t in Salamanca at the time,”  says Portillo. “I think he would almost certainly have been shot if he had been.” For the next two and a half years, Luis was a member of the Republican forces, running messages at the front because “he was a pacifist and he would not carry a weapon”.   Shortly before the Nationalists won the war in April 1939 – with aid from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy – Luis fled across the Pyrenees to Britain, where he married and lived until his death in 1993. He wasn’t able to return to Salamanca until 1959.  

 

His son Michael has visited the Castilian city  many times, but filming for the programme was the first time he’d been given access to Franco’s archive, which held files on anyone considered an enemy of the state, including his father.  “In his paper file, I saw for the first time artefacts that were used to condemn him. For instance, his membership card for an anti-fascist organisation of writers and artists, with his photograph and signature.  You understand how the system identified its so-called enemies and how it amassed evidence against them, but it was still a surprise to see it.  Also, it’s quite a long time since my father died, so it was quite a shock to see his youthful face popping out of the files.”

 

Portillo also travels to the northern town of Huesca – the target of an ill-fated Republican offensive in 1937 – to explore preserved trenches there in the company of Richard Blair, the son of novelist George Orwell (born Eric Blair). Orwell was one of the international volunteers who joined the fight against Franco and he wrote about his experiences in Homage to Catalonia. “He describes life in the trenches – what they eat, how cold they are, how they are constantly fighting against fleas and infestation, how badly armed they are,” says Portillo. “One of the extraordinary things to me about the interview is how precise [Blair] was in saying, ‘This is what Orwell experienced, this is how he described it, this is where it happened.’ So Orwell’s writings were very precise.”

 

Famous for being the home of Spain’s oldest university and for its elegant golden architecture, Salamanca is a popular destination nowadays. Less than two hours from Madrid by train, it lies in the vast interior region of Castile and León, 70 miles from the Portuguese border.  “I would absolutely recommend visiting,” enthuses Portillo.  “Salamanca is one of the most gorgeous cities in the world. You can only really compare it to Oxford and Cambridge, so much of it is taken up with the university – splendid buildings from the 15th to the 18th century. The stone is a yellowy sandstone and, against a relentlessly blue sky, which you tend to get both in winter and summer, it’s a fantastic contrast of colours.  The main square is very symmetrical and beautiful, and nowadays entirely free from traffic.  The climate doesn’t take any prisoners – it’s hot in summer and cold in winter – but it’s nonetheless a wonderful city.”

 

As for Spain’s railways, he says they’re among the finest in Europe. “They used to be terrible, but from the early 1990s onwards, there’s been this extraordinary revolution, so much of Spain is now covered by high-speed rail. I have a home near Seville and the journey from Madrid is now down to two hours and 20 minutes, even though we’re talking 530 kilometres. It always arrives on time and on the way it crosses a beautiful mountain range – it’s a wonder of construction.” 

 

After months in lockdown, Portillo is looking forward to hopping aboard a train again and hopes to start filming the next series of Great Railway Journeys soon. “I certainly am missing travel and we plan, other things being equal, some journeys in Britain in August. I think realistically we’re going to be confined to the United Kingdom, but next year we plan to film abroad again, so we’re not giving up.”