Spain’s Franco to be exhumed

The remains of fascist dictator Francisco Franco are to be removed from a state mausoleum under a controversial plan by the socialist government to transform the monument into a memorial to the civil war rather than a tribute to the dictatorship

Franco: Ruled Spain with iron fist after end of 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975. He was buried inside vast basilica drilled into granite mountain 50km north of Madrid

VALLEY OF THE FALLEN
Built between 1941 and 1959 to commemorate civil war victims, resting place of more than 30,000 soldiers on both sides.
Loathed by many as monument to fascist victory – political prisoners forced to help build it

150m stone cross features symbols of Franco’s ideology

Lift to cross

Madrid

Santa Cruz Basilica

Basilica esplanade

BURIALS 21,317 identified
12,530 identity unknown
Total: 33,847

War victims exhumed from mass graves across Spain between 1959 and 1983 and reburied in Valley of the Fallen, many without families’ knowledge

Entrance
SANTA CRUZ BASILICA
Location of burials
Atrium
Central nave
Transept 
Franco’s tomb
Only graves of Franco and José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Spain’s fascist Falange party, are marked

260m

“PACT OF FORGETTING”
Amnesty law passed in 1977 prevented any criminal investigation into Franco years, to ease
transition to democracy

Government aims to establish “truth commission” to identify 114,000 victims of civil war and Franco dictatorship

Spain has world’s second largest number of mass graves after Cambodia




Sources: Patrimonio Nacional, Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, El País
Pictures: Google Earth, Pablo Forcén Soler, Newscom, AP
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