The Battle of the Ebro in 3D
This year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Ebro, one of the bloodiest episodes of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). On the occasion of this day, Angle Editorial has published the book Ebre 1938. Imatges dʼuna batalla, which, through photographs, reconstructs the battle scenes in a plausible way. The uniqueness of this publication lies in the process of iconography, which combines photographs that were taken during some recreational activities about history in landscape spaces created with 3D technology.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Ebro, one of the bloodiest episodes of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). On the occasion of this day, Angle Editorial has published the book Ebre 1938. Imatges dʼuna batalla, which, through photographs, reconstructs the battle scenes in a plausible way. The uniqueness of this publication lies in the process of iconography, which combines photographs that were taken during some recreational activities about history in landscape spaces created with 3D technology.
Francesc Xavier Hernàndez Cardona and Mar H. Pongiluppi, members of the UB research group on Heritage didactics, Comprehensive Museumography and New Technologies (DIDPATRI), are the authors of this book, which aims to show in a didactic way one of the most important conflicts of the 20th century in this territory. Willing to disseminate and remember historical events, DIDPATRI organizes activities of historical remembrance such as talks, placing of commemorative sculptures and performances to recreate events.
Regarding the Battle of the Ebro, these recreational activities are carried out by volunteering groups who dress up as combatants and play scenes of the battle with objects, décor and costumes based on a rigorous knowledge of the conflict. A series of iconographies recreating scenes from the Battle have been created, resulting from the audio-visual recording of these activities. To do so, they used matte painting, a digital creation technique for inexistent but credible and realistic scenes. Its aim is to provide the spectator with visual didactics for these events.
This kind of historical iconography offers more or less hypothetical images from the past that contribute to the interpretation, knowledge and understanding of the historic narrative. Regarding the publication Ebre 1938. Imatges dʼuna batalla, Francesc Xavier Hernàndez Cardona, professor of Didactics of Social Sciences, and Mar Hernàndez Pongiluppi, collaborator in the research group DIDPATRI, worked on the first book that has been edited with this illustrative technique which explains the Battle of the Ebro in a didactic way. Putting together the researchersʼ historical and archaeological experience and the illustration of re-edited photographs that recreate the conflict resulted in the creation of an understandable and visual story for all audiences.
Ebre 1938. Imatges dʼuna batalla, now available in bookstores, will be presented on December 13 in the bookstore La Casa del Llibre (passeig de Gràcia, 62, Barcelona) at 7 p.m.
80 years of the Battle of the Ebro
Apart from the publication of this book, the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war conflict in the area of the Ebro counts on the unveiling of two commemorative plaques, elaborated by Mar H. Pongiluppi, members of the Popular Army in Flix (Ribera dʼEbre, Catalonia), and the Lieutenant Colonel Manuel de Tagüeña, major of the 15th Corps with three divisions from the Popular Army in Fatarella (Terra Alta, Catalonia). Both events counted with the bronze plaques and recreations with organizers and volunteers dressing up as combatants. Regarding Fatarella, volunteers played a recreation of a battle episode.
On July 25, 1938, eighty years ago, the republican forces crossed the Ebro, between Benifallet and Ribaroja, attacking the Francoist forces by surprise. These reacted by concentrating amounts of troops, canyons and almost all their aviation. Despite the resistance of the young republican combatants, Francoist troops opted for bombings and frontal attacks that caused the republican defeat, sealed on September 30 with the Munich Agreement. It was a battle that lasted for 115 days and ended with thousands of casualties.