in Madrid: Almudena cemetery, Execution Wall

Almost three thousand people were shot by the Franco regime between 1939 and 1944 in the walls of Our Lady of Almudena cemetery in Madrid. Although these facts are known it is not so easy to know the place where these victims are buried. According to Ana María Pascual (EL PAÍS 06 / 03 / 2019) “the remains of 3,000 people executed in Madrid by Francoist military courts between between April 1939 and February 1944 have been discovered in the city’s massive La Almudena cemetery (06/03/19) , much to the surprise of historians and family members who believed the remains had been cremated. The mass grave was found last year after heavy rains eroded the dirt and exposed the bones. The remains of the executed Republicans were most likely buried along with the bodies of thousands of ordinary citizen. Work carried out by City Hall’s Human Rights and Historical Memory department, as well as the municipal Funeral Service company, suggests that the discovery is one of La Almudena’s ossuaries, in which the remains of the executed Republicans were most likely buried along with the bodies of thousands of ordinary citizens who died of reasons unrelated to the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the subsequent dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. The finding disproves long-standing claims by the municipal funeral company that the executed Republicans had been exhumed from their tombs in the 1990s and incinerated in the crematorium at Madrid’s Carabanchel cemetery. This version of events was trusted for years by historians, family members and the group Memoria y Libertad (Memory and Liberty), an association that aims to share data and information on the victims of the Francoist regime with family members.” These photos were taken in January 2022.