| Liceu bombing | |
|---|---|
 Illustration of the bombing in Le Petit Journal | |
| Location | Gran Teatre del Liceu, La Rambla, 51–59 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain |
| Coordinates | 41°22′49″N 2°10′25″E / 41.38028°N 2.17361°E |
| Date | 7 November 1893 |
| Target | Catalan bourgeoisie |
Attack type | Indiscriminate bombing |
| Weapons | Orsini bomb |
| Deaths | 20-30 |
| Injured | 27-35 |
| Perpetrator | Santiago Salvador |
| Participant | 1 |
| Motive | Revenge for the execution of Paulí Pallàs |
| Convicted | 11 |
| Judge | Enrique Marzo |
The Liceu bombing was a terrorist attack by the Spanish anarchist Santiago Salvador, who killed 20-30 people at Barcelona's Grand Lyceum Theatre on 7 November 1893. The bombing was in response to the execution of Paulí Pallàs, who had himself attempted to assassinate the Captain General of Catalonia Arsenio Martínez Campos.
The attack quickly caused a reaction from the right-wing press, which engaged in the dehumanisation of anarchists, calling for their constitutional rights to be revoked and the repression of the anarchist movement by a new secret police. Valeriano Weyler was appointed as Captain General of Catalonia and initiated a crackdown against the anarchist movement. The police arrested 415 people, both known and suspected anarchists, over the subsequent months. The military tribunal disregarded Salvador's confession of sole responsibility, convinced that a conspiracy existed.
Several anarchists were tortured into giving forced confessions, leading to the execution of 6 people and the life imprisonment of 4 others. After spending the last months of his life feigning a conversion to Catholicism, which helped him avoid torture and receive more public support, Salvador was executed by garrote. Despite the introduction of anti-anarchist legislation by the Congress of Deputies, the 1896 Barcelona Corpus Christi procession bombing took place two years later. Many of those arrested in the aftermath of the Liceu bombing were arrested again during the Montjuïc trials.
The Liceu bombing was the largest terrorist attack of its time, causing a higher death toll than the previous three decades of terrorist attacks. It has been categorised as an indiscriminate attack and contrasted with most other acts of anarchist terrorism, which largely focused on targeted assassinations of state officials and symbolic acts of property damage.