1. The conservation of the place: we support the
2. These debates should be proposed as a memorial
maintenance of the Valley of the Fallen, including process to include an international tender that
the sculptures group with the aim to explain would reconsider the space as a whole and that
the atrocity represented by dictatorship and the would create a new double memorial around two
National Catholic regime. The reinterpretation issues, inherently related although not much
of the symbols would not mean its elimination, mixed: a ) the victims of the civil war - place to
hiding and concealment of Franco’s regime, but be determined; and b) the National Catholicism
it would mean a very powerful pedagogical tool. and dictatorship. How to accomplish it? A much
This completely coherent position confronts wider, executive and detailed project than the
others who support a partial elimination, either present one will address this task.
by means of demolition or by means of a natural
“wreck” of the place caused by nature and the
Enough debates will be held: Should the cross be
passing of time. Citizenship and democracy taken away? Should a “Memento Park” such as
would feel questioned about the guarantee to not that of Budapest be created in the terrace or in
repeat it again in case a new significance would the forest complex with all the symbolism of the
be attributed to such a site as the Valley of the Valley and the rest of the State?.... Why wouldn’t
Fallen, which would involve a total preservation it be possible to create a “Memory Park of the
of the Francoist aesthetic design, but leaving the Valley of Cuelgamuros”? There are many options
symbols inside or in a museum. These questions to consider and we believe that a performative
would represent reparation demands towards our and striking action would help to achieve a kind
society and the relatives of the movement for the of social catharsis and could result in a new
recovery of historical memory. memory of the place for the next generations to
come.
Aerial view of the Valley of Cuelgamuros without the cross | Photomontage: Núria Ricart
34
Observing Memories
ISSUE 2