Valley of the Fallen

Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos, view from the esplanade.

The Valle de los Caídos (in English: Valley of the Fallen) is a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, erected at Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid, conceived by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honor those who fell in both contending sides during the Spanish Civil War. It was also claimed by Franco that the monument was meant to be a "national act of atonement".

The monument, a landmark in 20th-century Spanish architecture, was designed by Pedro Muguruza and Diego Méndez on a scale to equal, according to Franco, "the grandeur of the monuments of old, which defy time and forgetfulness". Together with the Labour University of Gijon, it is the most prominent example of the original Spanish Neo-Herrerian style, which was intended as a revival of Juan de Herrera’s late renaissance architecture, exemplified in El Escorial. This uniquely Spanish architecture was widely used in public buildings of post-war Spain and is rooted on the International classicism exemplified by Albert Speer or Mussolini's Esposizione Universale Roma.

The monument precinct encloses over 3,360 acres of Mediterranean woodlands and granite boulders on the Sierra de Guadarrama hills, over 3000 feet over sea level where stand the Basilica, the Benedictine Abbey, the Hospedria, the Valley and the ‘Juanelos’ -four cylindrical monoliths dating from the 16th century-. The most prominent feature of the monument is the 500-feet-high Cross sprouting over a granite outcrop 500 feet over the basilica esplanade and visible from over 20 miles away.

Works started in 1940 and took over eighteen years to complete, the monument being officially inaugurated on April 1st 1958. According to the official ledger, the cost of the construction totalled 1.159 billion pesetas, funded through National Lottery draws and donations.

As a surviving artifact of Franco's rule, the monument and its Catholic basilica remain controversial, particularly due to the fact that 10% of the construction workforce were convicts, some of them Popular Front prisioners.

The complex is owned and operated by the Patrimonio Nacional, the Spanish governmental heritage agency and ranked as the third most visited monument of the Patrimonio Nacional in 2009.

Basilica, cross and abbey

File:ValleDeLosCaidos Main cupola2.jpg

Dome inside the Basilica

Central Nave of the Crypt

Benedictine Abbey

Rising above the valley is one of the world's largest basilicas, Basílica de la Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos (Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen), hewn out of a granite ridge, and the tallest memorial cross in the world, a 152.4-metre-high construction of stone.

In 1960, Pope John XXIII declared the underground crypt a basilica. The dimensions of the underground basilica, as excavated, are larger than those of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. To avoid competition, a partitioning wall was built near the inside of the entrance and a sizable entryway was left unconsecrated.

The monumental hieratic sculptures over the main gate and the base of the cross culminated the career of Juan de Ávalos. The monument consists of a wide explanada (esplanade) with a spectacular view of the valley and the outskirts of Madrid in the distance. A long vaulted crypt was tunnelled out of solid granite, piercing the mountain to the massive transept, which lies exactly below the cross.

On the wrought-iron gates, Franco's neo-Habsburg double-headed eagle is prominently displayed. On entering the basilica, visitors are flanked by two large metal statues of art deco angels holding swords.

There is a funicular that connects the basilica with the base of the cross. There is a spiral staircase and a lift inside the cross, connecting the top of the basilica dome to a trapdoor on top of the cross, but their use is restricted to maintenance staff.

The Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen (Template:Lang-es), on the other side of the mountain, houses priests who say perpetual Masses for the repose of the fallen. The abbey ranks as a Royal Monastery.

Valley of the Fallen

The valley that contains the monument, preserved as a national park, is located 10 km northeast of the royal site of El Escorial, northwest of Madrid. Beneath the valley floor lie the remains of 40,000, whose names are accounted for in the monument's register.

Although the valley contains both Nationalist and Republican graves – several former Republicans' bodies were moved there from temporary graves at the end of the war – the tone of the monument is distinctly Nationalist and anti-Communist, containing the inscription "¡Caídos por Dios y por España!" ("Fallen for God and Spain!"), reflecting the close ties of Franco's Nationalist regime to the Catholic Church.

Additionally, Franco's timing of his announcement of the decision to create the monument left no doubts: on 1 April 1940, the day of the victory parade to celebrate the first anniversary of his triumph over the Republic, Franco announced his personal decision to raise a splendid monument to those who had fallen in his cause.

Today, Spain's Socialist Government has been debating controversial plans to re-designate the Valley of the Fallen a "monument to Democracy" or as a memorial to all Spaniards killed in conflict "for Democracy" (believed to mean only the Republican side). Other political organizations, among them centrist Catholic groups, believe that the monument is already dedicated to all of the dead, civilian and military of both Nationalist and Republican sides.

Franco's tomb

Virgen de Loreto

Franco's tomb

In 1975, after Franco's death, the site was designated by the interim government as the burial place for the Caudillo, who actually did not desire to be buried in the valley, but in Madrid. Unlike the fallen of the Civil War who were laid to rest in the valley exterior to the basilica, Franco was buried inside the church. His grave is marked by a simple tombstone engraved with his name, on the choir side of the main altar (between the altar and the apse of the Church; behind the altar, from the perspective of a person standing at the main door).

Franco was the second person buried in the Santa Cruz basilica. Franco had earlier interred José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, the Spanish fascist party that aided his ascension to power, under a modest gravestone on the nave side of the altar. Primo de Rivera died November 20, 1936, exactly 39 years before Franco, whose grave is on the exact opposite side of the altar.

Today, the Valle de los Caídos is a popular tourist site and every year, on the closest Saturday following November 20, the site is marked by memorial celebrations by Franco's nostalgic supporters and Falange activists.

Monument controversy

The works of construction were highly controversial due to the use of convicts, including Popular Front war prisioners, trading their labour for a conviction redemption: "The drilling of the Risco de la Nava was undertaken by San Roman, an affiliate of the incumbent construction company Agroman. The workforce was provided by the dispair and hardship of the post war period. These were joined by Republican prisoners who were promised a conviction redemption for risking their lives working on the monument construction [...], which in 1943 ammounted to six hundred. A 1940 Spanish law recognized the possibility of redeeming two days of conviction for each working day. This benefit was increased to six days when labour was carried out at the basilica. The motto used by the Spanish Nationalist government was "el trabajo enoblece" "work ennobles".

According to the official programme records, 2,643 workers participated directly in the construction, some of them highly skilled, as required by the complexity of the work. 243 of them were convicts. During the eighteen-year construction period, the official tally of workers who died as result of accidents during the building of the monument totalled fourteen.

Political rallies in celebration of the former dictator are now banned by a recent law, voted on by the Congress of Deputies on 16 October 2007. The organization that runs the Valley of the Fallen is also required to share information on all of those who died during the civil war and who suffered repression, not just those who died by the orders of the Republicans.".

Since 2004 the left-leaning Spanish government, who has been following an openly belligerent policy against all Francoist heritage, has had an uneasy relationship with a monument that is the most conspicuos legacy from Franco's rule. In November 2009, Patrimonio Nacional controversially ordered the closure of most parts of the complex for an indefinite period of time, including the Cross, the Basilica and the Abbey. This has been seen by some historians and opinion leaders as a policy of harassment against the monument.

Visiting From Madrid

To visit the monument from Madrid, first take bus 661 from Moncloa station to San Lorenzo del Escorial. There is a departure every half hour that costs €3.35 one way and the journey takes about an hour. Next you have two options. If you only want to visit the monument, you can purchase the entrance and return ticket for about €8 in the bus station. If you are visiting El Escorial, you can buy a combination ticket at El Escorial for €11 and then purchase your return bus ticket for €4.70 at the station. Either way, there is only one bus that leaves for the monument at 3:15 and leaves the monument at 5:30. The bus returns to San Lorenzo del Escorial just in time to take a 6:00 bus back to Madrid. Just get off the bus and in 5 minutes the same bus will board again for Madrid.

External links

• WAIS Forum on Spain, 2003: "Spain: the Valley of the Fallen": includes quote from Franco's decree, April 1, 1940
• El Valle de los Caidos: an apologetic account (in Spanish)
• Valley of the Fallen - Practical visitor information and Photos.
• http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=1027
• The Valley of the Fallen - History and Photos.
• Ralph Harrington, "El Valle de los Caídos: a study in remembrance and revenge"
• Spain To Uncover Past In 'Valley Of The Fallen' - All Things Considered, NPR