Alphonse Laurencic (2 July 1902 in

Enghien-les-Bains Enghien-les-Bains () is a Communes of France, commune in the Departements of France, department of Val-d'Oise, France. It is located in the northern suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. Enghien-les-Bains is famous as a s ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

– 9 July 1939 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) was a French painter and architect. He is known for designing jail cells to torture captured supporters of the

Nationalist faction The Nationalist faction (), also Rebel faction () and Francoist faction () was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 ...

of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

Biography

Laurencic was born in France as the son of Slovene immigrants from the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

. Laurencic supported the Republican forces fighting

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

's Nationalist army in Spain. In 1938, he helped build Civil War jail cells intended to torture Nationalist supporters which resembled 3-D modern art paintings by surrealist

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

and

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

artist

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

. According to Spanish art historian Jose Milicua, who found papers from Laurencic's 1939 trial by a Nationalist military court, Laurencic told the court the cells, in Barcelona, featured sloping beds at a 20-degree angle that were almost impossible to sleep on. They also had irregularly shaped bricks on the floor that prevented prisoners from walking backwards or forwards. The walls in the 2 m x 1 m cells were covered in surrealist patterns designed to make prisoners distressed and confused, and lighting effects were used to make the artwork even more dizzying. Some of them had a stone seat designed to make occupants instantly slide to the floor, while other cells were painted in tar and became stiflingly hot in the summer. Laurencic told the court, which mentioned the cells at his trial, that the cells were built after he heard reports of similar structures being built elsewhere in Spain. Alfonso Laurencic was executed on the morning of the 9th of July 1939.

Bibliography

* ''Checas de Barcelona'', de César Alcalá. Belacqua. Barcelona, 2005. * ''Las checas del terror'', de César Alcalá. LibrosLibres. 2007. * ''La causa general'', Akrón, 2008. * ''El terror staliniano en la España republicana'', Felix Llaugé. Editorial Aura. Barcelona, 1974. * ''La persecución religiosa en España durante la Segunda República, 1931–1939'' Vicente Cárcel Ortí. Ediciones Rialp, 1990 – 404 páginas * ''Checas de Barcelona: el terror y la represión estalinista en Catalunya'', de César Alcalá Giménez. Edit. Belacqua de ediciones y publicaciones, S.L. . Barcelona, 2005.

References

External links

'Jail cells "made from modern art"'
BBC News. 23 March 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laurencic, Alphonse 1902 births 1939 deaths People from Enghien-les-Bains French people of the Spanish Civil War 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters 20th-century French architects Spanish trade unionists Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members French people of Slovenian descent French people executed abroad People executed by Spain by firing squad