Pedro Sánchez’s government plan for “Resignify” he Valley of the Fallen It has started with controversy. The Spanish Episcopal Conference He has reacted to the publication of the contest, by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, to receive different proposals to renew this space and has reproached the Executive to have not been consulted. The Technical Prescriptions of the contract establishes that the remodeling will be practically integral, so that it will only be outside this intervention “The altar and adjacent benches” that, according to this document, “they will be kept as spaces for religious worship ».
At no time, the Government explains the meaning of “adjacent”, so it is even unknown what will be the breadth of space that will not be remodeled. In any case, it is the only exception, since the specifications also determine that “the rest of the spaces inside the basilica”, such as “the lobby, the atrium, the intermediate space, the unoccupied ship, the dome (but without the altar) and the chapels of the holy grave and the Blessed Sacrament are not destined for the cult and may be subject to interventions of an artistic and museum nature for the resignification of the place.”
“These interventions will be compatible with the celebration of worship acts in the altar space and adjacent benches,” says the Ministry.
On the other hand, it is also clarified that in the esplanade of the enclosure the so -called “interpretation center” will be located, a space dedicated to spreading the “contextualization of the monument in the history of Spain.” The Government ensures that, with this, “a collective and inclusive memory” will be promoted, according to “the principles of democratic memory, inspired by the constitutional and democratic values of today’s society” for a “learning of the past.”
Will enter the basilica
The Interpretation Center is defined as the “nerve axis” of the project for the function of «Democratic pedagogy».
The Government intends to use this center and also the interior of the Basilica to spread its vision of the “political, ideological and architectural history of the monument and its significance in the history of Spain and Europe.” In this context, the specifications establishes that, among the contents, it will be addressed “the use of lobing labor in its construction (which could be extended to the use of lobing labor in the postwar period in general throughout the country).”
The plan practically affects to the entire space. In relation to the interior of the Basilica, it is said that “the proposals will be able to raise a versatile and flexible use”, with “alternative uses” that contribute to the “global resignification of the whole” to “turn it into a memory space to honor the victims of the civil war and in a Reconciliation space».
The Plan will also affect the dome of the Basilica, whose iconography must respect the self -styled “Democratic Memory Law”, which the Government agreed in 2022 with Bildu, through a “moderate, sensitive and respectful intervention with the existing elements.”
Criticism of the Episcopal Conference
The Spanish Episcopal Conference He has reacted to the publication of the contest to “resignify” the Valley of the Fallen with a statement in which they ensure that the “Catholic Church has never been promoter or driving of resignification activities that the Government of Spain wants to carry out in the Valley limiting itself to safeguarding the agreements in force from the beginning to state interventions ”, thus unchecking the government’s proposal.
The Episcopal Conference denounces that the Executive has taken «the initiative launching a contest of ideas without having the church About the details or issues that should be previously specified, In case the spaces are not respected and religious sensitivity ».
The institution indicates that the “terms of the agreement between the government and the Holy See are general and have never stopped in the details or particularities of the same.”
Thus, for example, it is recalled that this agreement forces “the maintenance of the basilica where the Eucharist is celebrated as well as its liturgical and religious signs”, so that “the interventions, of artistic and museographic nature will always guarantee the liturgical and cultural destiny of these spaces without reaching that space.”
Likewise, they will maintain «the Chapels with its religious symbols and liturgical spaces », something that the government’s plan does not respect.
