RATHER than a war memorial, it is a monument to a victory. Francisco Franco, whose military rebellion against a turbulent parliamentary republic triggered the Spanish civil war and his 36-year dictatorship, conceived of the Valley of the Fallen as a place to pay tribute to those who died for what he called his “Crusade”. Erected over 19 years, using forced labour, it is designed to inspire fear rather than sorrow. Its massive cross on a rocky outcrop in the foothills of the Sierra de Guadarrama is visible from the outskirts of Madrid, and its basilica is a cold vault bored 250 metres into the mountainside. It contains the remains of 33,847 dead from both sides in the war. Only two graves, both in the basilica’s transept, are named: those of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of Spain’s fascist party, and Franco himself.
In a vibrant democracy, the site has become an aberration. Last year parliament approved a resolution sponsored by the...Continue reading
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