SPAIN. Barcelona. Civil wedding in Barcelona: the judge reads out the legal documents in Catalan. Hanging on the wall on the left: portrait of the Spanish colonel NACIA. Civil ceremonies have been in place since 1931 but are still seen as a revolutionary statement. After the civil war and the return to Catholicism, the state religion, many couples married in a civil ceremony regained their unmarried status in the name of the law. July 1936. (photo published in Life Magazine dated 28/11/38)