The project for self -denominated “Resignification” of the Valley of the Fallenthat the government intends to undertake in the coming years, includes the great cross, the most emblematic symbol of the enclosure. This cross, with a height of 152, 4 meters, is considered the largest in the world.
The Technical Prescriptions of the project, consulted by OKDIARIO, includes the cross, in addition to other spaces, such as the Basilica. In this case, only the altar and the “adjacent” benches will be left out -it is not clarified how many -that “will be kept as destined spaces to religious cult ».
The government will remode “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 Sepulcher and the Blessed Sacrament »considering that these «They are not intended for cult and may be subject to interventions of artistic and museum nature for the resignification of the place ».
Executive sources argue that “never” thought about demolishing the cross, because they consider that without it the meaning of the Valley of the Fallen cannot be explained. “National Catholicism is explained there,” they affirm, and add that destroying elements “the story is erased.” However, it is part of the Intervention Project.
30 million
The Government will spend 30 million in this plan, of which 4 million will be for the ideas contest and the drafting of the project and 26 million, for all the resignification, museography and the construction of the museum or interpretation center, which will be located in the esplanade and part of 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 it 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, whose iconography will have to 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 criticized this plan and has clarified 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 unmarking in a statement from the government’s proposal.
These sources point out 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 ».
Likewise, they are referred to the agreement between the Government and the Holy See for the remodeling of the place, which forces “the maintenance of the basilica where the Eucharist is celebrated as well as its liturgical and religious signs”, so that “the interventions, of an artistic and museographic nature will always guarantee the liturgical and cultural destiny of these spaces without reaching that space.”
They also affirm that this agreement also forces to maintain «the Chapels with its religious symbols and liturgical spaces », something that the government’s plan does not respect.
