The Royal Shipyard of Barcelona: Building the Spanish Armada

Before the Armada sailed from Lisbon, its ships were born in the Drassanes Reials de Barcelona, the vast Gothic shipyards that built the backbone of Spain's Mediterranean fleet. In this episode, Lucas and Luna walk through the stone arches of Barcelona's royal shipyard and explore how Catalan shipwrights, Genoese bankers, and North African timber fed the Spanish war machine. They discuss the design of the galera (galley), the role of the bastià (master builder), and the logistical nightmare of assembling the Great Armada of 1588. They also uncover the little-known story of the Catalan fleet that fought at Lepanto, and the surprising connection between Barcelona's shipyards and the Spanish Inquisition — because the Shipyard was also a prison for crypto-Jewish carpenters. Along the way, they touch on the rivalry between Barcelona and Genoa, the deforestation of the Montseny massif, and the fall of the Catalan shipbuilding tradition after the War of Spanish Succession. #Spain #Barcelona #Drassanes #CatalanHistory #SpanishArmada #Lepanto #Shipbuilding #Galera #MediterraneanHistory #Inquisition #PhilipII #DonJuanDeAustria #16thCentury #MaritimeHistory #Galley #Shipyard #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo