Spain to Open Crypts of Civil War Victims at Franco Mausoleum

(Bloomberg) -- Weeks after exhuming former dictator Francisco Franco from his mountainside tomb outside Madrid, Spain has given the go ahead to open crypts at the monument containing the remains of Civil War victims that were buried alongside him.

The state agency which looks after state-owned buildings of historical interest said it had informed families how the process will be carried out. The aim is to assess the viability of identifying and recovering remains from the basilica outside Madrid, the agency, called Patrimonio Nacional, said in a statement Wednesday.

Franco had lain in a tomb at the foot of the basilica’s altar for 44 years before his removal to a private cemetery near Madrid on Oct. 24. The fact that Republican soldiers were also interred in the monument was seen as an insult to the many Spaniards that died fighting against his nationalist forces during the country’s bloody civil war.

The change of Franco’s burial site to the Mingorrubio cemetery on Madrid’s north-western outskirts marked a political victory for Sanchez but it also rekindled divisions within Spanish society. The far right Vox party was able to use that to its advantage in last Sunday’s election in which it doubled its seats in parliament.

The Valley of the Fallen complex was built from 1940 to 1958 and contains the remains of more than 30,000 war dead.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Charles Penty

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