Madrid (EFE).- Gernika will be the first place of memory that the Government will declare in accordance with the Law of Democratic Memory, but this norm already recognizes with this category other enclaves such as the Valley of Cuelgamuros (former Valley of the Fallen), the Fort of San Cristóbal in Pamplona and the Pantheon of Illustrious Men in Madrid.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on Tuesday that Gernika will be declared a place of memory for the “horror” of the fascist bombardment that the town suffered in 1937, during the Civil War.
And this Wednesday the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, visited the Vizcaya town on the occasion of the 86th anniversary of the bombing.
The Democratic Memory Law, which came into force last October, states that places of memory will be considered those spaces, buildings, places or intangible cultural heritage where there have been events of special relevance linked to “repression and violence” against the population as a consequence of the resistance to the coup d’état of July 1936, the Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, exile and “the fight for the recovery and deepening of democratic values”.
The authority to declare a place of democratic memory will be held by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, but the norm itself recognizes four enclaves with this category:
Cuelgamuros Valley (former Valley of the Fallen)
Built in San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid), it is considered the most important symbol of Francoism and is the largest mass grave in Spain, with 33,833 remains of victims from both sides of the Civil War.
The remains of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, were recently exhumed from this place, and in 2019 those of the dictator Francisco Franco, but the recovery of the remains of 118 victims of the Civil War and the “resignification” of the place remain pending. , for which an ideas contest will be called.
Fort of San Cristóbal (Pamplona)
The Fort, property of the Ministry of Defense and currently unused, was built from 1877 to defend Pamplona and with the military coup of 1936 it was used as a prison through which political prisoners from all the provinces of Spain passed in very bad conditions.
On May 22, 1938, 795 prisoners escaped through the gate of the fort in one of the largest escapes in European history, which resulted in more than two hundred inmates being shot dead while fleeing or shot without trial.
Documentary Center of Historical Memory (Salamanca)
The Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero approved in 2007 the creation of the Documentary Center of Historical Memory, based in Salamanca and in which the General Archive of the Civil War is integrated.
The new law gives it the consideration of a place of democratic memory and highlights its work of guarding, disseminating and gathering documentary and bibliographic collections from the period between 1936 and 1978.
Pantheon of Illustrious Men
In this funerary monument in Madrid, belonging to National Heritage and built between 1892 and 1899, rest the remains of a dozen illustrious figures of Spanish political and military history, such as former presidents Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, José Canalejas and Eduardo Dato.
The law changes the name of this building to the Pantheon of Spain and recognizes it as a place of memory with the aim of maintaining the memory of the “representatives of the history of Spanish democracy” and those who have fought in favor of the “democratic coexistence, the defense of peace and human rights, as well as the progress of science or culture”.