Spain Launches Controversial Overhaul of Valley of the Fallen

"The Socialist government wants to move quickly with the transformation of the Basilica ..." Where is the Vatican in all of this?

From The European Conservative

By Javier Villamor

The Socialist government wants to move quickly with the transformation of the Basilica before anyone can get in their way.

Spain's socialist government has released the requirements for companies wishing to bid on the “resignification” of the Valley of the Fallen, marking another step in its battle to take control of the site. Critics view this as another part of a broader effort to reduce Christian influence over the world’s longest Basilica and largest cross.

Mounting public dissatisfaction and pressure from conservative political parties and media seem to have prompted the Socialists to push forward and speed up the project before legal challenges can stop it.

The Valley of the Fallen is a vast monumental complex built by dictator Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War, intended as a burial site for those who died in the conflict—though critics say it glorifies Franco’s regime. Spain’s governing Socialist Party (PSOE) wants to turn the Valley of the Fallen into a museum of “historical reinterpretation,” where the government will impose its official history based on the guidelines of the so-called Law of Democratic Memory. Critics say this will present an oversimplified view of the Civil War, where the Left is always good and the Right always bad. 

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, the “resignification” will encompass the entire complex, including the altar area and the vault, which, according to sources close to the project, would be painted white, eliminating all religious references.

Luis Felipe Utrera-Molina, a lawyer defending the Valley of the Fallen, laments this step because it “once again reveals the naivety, or bad faith, of the church hierarchy,” in reference to the communiqué of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in which they claimed to have “saved the cross and the abbey.” 

It has taken the government only a few days to make them out to be liars. And that’s what happens when you pact with liars. You can’t expect the devil not to betray you if you make a pact with him.

The government’s international contest seeks to select a proposal for the Valley of the Fallen, which aims to “develop an artistic, architectural and landscape intervention in the monumental complex and its immediate surroundings.”

The competition is divided into two rounds. In the first round, contestants will have two months to submit their proposals, after which up to ten finalists will be selected. In the second round, finalists will be given an additional two months to submit their more developed proposals, from which one will be chosen. Participants must meet specific technical and professional requirements, such as having completed at least one project with a budget of more than €2 million between 2010 and 2025 and having a multidisciplinary technical team including architects, historians, and visual artists.

Utrera-Molina believes the government already has a preferred outcome and is rushing through formalities. He argues that the only authority with immediate power to stop this is Madrid’s regional government, which could designate the Valley as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), granting it legal protection.

Within two to three months, the High Court of Justice of the Madrid region should rule on whether the regional government has the power to protect the Valley. If the court affirms this power, all the pressure will fall on Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso of the center-right opposition Partido Popular. Sources close to the party say that Ayuso is under intense pressure from her national leader, Alberto Feijóo, not to take action on this matter.