Gerona (Version 2), Episodios nacionales

The year is 1808. Napoleon's armies have swept across Spain, and in the ancient city of Gerona, a resistance is forming that will become legend. Through the eyes of Gabriel, our narrator, we encounter Andresillo Marijuán, a fellow soldier from the Battle of Bailén, who recounts the extraordinary ordeal he witnessed during Gerona's infamous siege. For nearly a year, the city held fast against French forces, and what Andres describes is not merely combat but a descent into desperate survival: dwindling food, disease spreading through cramped streets, women and children refusing to abandon their homes, and soldiers whose patriotism calcified into something almost inhuman in its determination. Galdós transforms this pivotal chapter of the Peninsular War into a visceral exploration of what ordinary people are capable of when faced with annihilation. This is historical fiction that refuses to romanticize heroism, instead revealing it as something ugly, exhausting, and ultimately human.