Qualla: Battles of El Bruch https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:39:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battles of El Bruch https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch Battles of El Bruch: Introduction https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch/ Photo credit Ramon Martí Alsina, Public domain. According to the story Catalans have told for two centuries, a French army was routed here by a boy with a drum. As Napoleon's soldiers pushed toward El Bruc in the summer of 1808, a young drummer beat his instrument in the passes below Montserrat, and the mountain's serrated rock walls caught the sound and threw it back, multiplied and rolling, until the French were convinced a vast army waited in the hills ahead. They turned and fled. The drummer, remembered as Isidre Lluçà i Casanoves, may be more legend than history. The battles themselves were entirely real, and against every expectation, the Catalans won them both.

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Image: Ramon Martí Alsina | Public domain

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/sp3k-battles-of-el-bruch-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battles of El Bruch: A Peninsula in Revolt https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch/ Photo credit Rauenstein, CC BY-SA 3.0. In May 1808, Napoleon's maneuvering had cleared the way for his brother to take the Spanish throne, and Madrid erupted in fury. The Dos de Mayo uprising was crushed in the capital, but it lit a fire across the whole Iberian Peninsula, and ordinary Spaniards took up arms against F...

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Image: Rauenstein | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/sp3k-battles-of-el-bruch-a-peninsula-in-revolt.mp3 0:06 2 full Battles of El Bruch: The Sixth of June https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On 4 June, a French column of 3,800 men under Brigadier General François de Schwarz marched out of Barcelona. A heavy rainstorm turned the roads to mud and slowed them badly, and that delay proved decisive. It gave the Catalan defenders time to gather, roughly two thousand strong...

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]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/sp3k-battles-of-el-bruch-the-sixth-of-june.mp3 0:06 3 full Battles of El Bruch: The Drum in the Mountains https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch/ Photo credit Jordiferrer, CC BY-SA 3.0. How did farmers and militiamen scatter a column of Napoleon's army? The answer Catalonia chose to remember was a boy and a drum. In the retelling, the echo of a lone drummer rebounding off Montserrat's jagged peaks made the French believe an enormous force was bearing down on the...

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Image: Jordiferrer | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/sp3k-battles-of-el-bruch-the-drum-in-the-mountains.mp3 0:06 4 full Battles of El Bruch: The Fourteenth, and After https://qualla.com/battles-of-el-bruch/ Photo credit Zarateman, CC0. The French were not finished. On 14 June a second and larger force under General of Division Joseph Chabran marched on El Bruc, but the Catalans, now led by Joan Baget, defeated and repelled them again. The frustrated French managed only to set fire to several buildings in the vi...

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]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/3/k/battles-of-el-bruch-wp/sp3k-battles-of-el-bruch-the-fourteenth-and-after.mp3 0:06 5 full