Burning of convents in Spain (1931)

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Between May 10 and May 13, 1931, over one hundred convents and other religious buildings were deliberately burned down by anarchists and other Far Left anticlericalists in Spain during allegedly spontaneous riots that started in Madrid and spread throughout the country.^[1]

On May 10, a monarchist group played a recording of the former national anthem Marcha Real by an open window in the Calle de Alcalá while a large crowd were returning from the Buen Retiro Park. Some members of the crowd were enraged, and the following day anti-Catholic riots and Church arson swept across Spain.^[2] While some cabinet ministers in the newly founded Second Spanish Republic wanted to intervene and restore order, other cabinet ministers opposed the idea. According to the canonical narrative, Prime Minister Manuel Azaña allegedly overruled those who wished to intervene by stating, "All the convents of Spain are not worth the life of a single Republican".^[3]