Valley of the Fallen

As a foreigner I find it beautiful but at the same time a slightly morbidly grotesque kind of monument.

At face value the architecture is pleasant, it’s grand and serves quite well as a national monument and is very well situated in the beautiful landscape of the valley. The nearby Via Crucis is really excellent as a walk.

But on the other hand this monument was commissioned by Franco to be a memorial of rememberence and national reconciliation for the dead of the civil war, yet arguable nobody more than Franco himself can be blamed for starting it. All those people didn’t have to die if not for his actions and those of his co-conspirators, staging a violent coup and civil war against a democratically elected government. In an alternative timeline a peaceful solution could and should have been found.

Of course the path to civil war is complex and blame does not rest singularly with one person, Franco definitely has a big share of the blame and accountability for the devastating cost to life and Spanish society. Therefore I find it morbidly curious how he convinced himself of this project, dumped a load of unidentified remains of both sides from the conflict into the catacombs and was buried in a central location within with honours (though that wasn’t his intention iirc).

At least sense finally prevailed and he was given a burial in a cemetery next to his wife, which is arguably better than he deserves.

It’s a beautiful monument, but with a very strange significance considering its history.

No has hecho la visita entera si no has pisado la tumba.

Si es que deberíamos de llevar dinamita…

TNT


Sure dude. Especially breathtaking for the people who lost their lives as political prisoners building that by force.