At the foot of the Grand Cross of the Quilgamoros Valley – the Valley of the Fallen until October 2022 – lies one of the country’s most impressive sculptural groups: La Piedad, the Virtues and Missionaries of Juan de Ávalos. … Entrance to the basilica. Nothing has moved yet, but the project chosen by the government to “redesign” the site promises to change everything. The access, the landscape, and maybe even the mountain itself. However, it does so, leaving behind more questions than certainties.
Yesterday, the Secretary General of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture, Iñaki Carnicero, announced that the public competition called by the government to redefine the mega complex had been won. The chosen proposal, called ‘Plinth and Cross’, initially proposes removing the access stairs to the church, building an interpretation center to explain its history and opening a ‘large cleft’ crossing the square from one side to the other. “A symbolic wound on the ground that seeks to break the centrality and enhance the space for encounter and dialogue,” according to its authors.
The mountain split into two parts
This “crack” is precisely one of the elements that has raised the most suspicion. The official description does not clarify whether this is a superficial intervention – a symbolic impact – on the ground or whether it will involve a real break in the rock of the mountain on which the cross stands, a structure 150 meters high that can be seen from a distance of more than 40 kilometers. “At the moment it is not certain whether the mountain will split into two parts,” explains a source from the Ministry of Housing to ABC, who also points out that the “supposed cleft” that can be seen in the model and which divides the entire site is an “opening” to see the interior parts, but it is not a project that is currently being studied to turn into reality.
What is explained is that through a “large slab” the public will have access to a circle “open to the sky” allowing “the reorganization of circulations” and from which they will enter the interior of the basilica, where they indicate that “minimal interventions” will be carried out, but without specifying which ones.
Example of the “Base and Cross” project
The other big mystery concerns the sculptures. The model presented yesterday left it up to interpretation whether the sculptural group of the Grand Cross would disappear or not. Both the Ministry of Housing and the Archbishop of Madrid insist to the ABC that no plot of Ávalos will be removed. “Nothing will be removed: it has been contextualized, the environment has been improved and better integrated, but will not be desecrated,” they emphasized, stressing also that the Church “cooperated” at all times in the selection of the project.
Regarding the presented model, they defend that it is a “simple and ecological” proposal. They explained: “It is a sober representation, with simple lines and without going into details, designed to show the general context of the project.”
“Brave” project.
During the presentation, Carnicero defended that the winning proposal offers a “new vision” for the memorial. “It is a project that confronts with great courage the monument of the current complex. He said that he proposes to give greater importance to nature and architecture, breaking the axis that characterized this space and producing a large shadow, a large crack that calls for dialogue and a more pluralistic and democratic vision. However, Housing emphasizes that “the only thing that has been approved is the idea but there is no wording for the project,” which will be determined in the next stage of the competition. So changes to Cuelgamuros are still up in the air.
Example of the “Base and Cross” project
Global budget closed: 30 million euros. Four of them will be allocated to the competition and drafting of the project, and 26 million will be allocated to the full development of the resignation, which will include the construction of the new Center for Interpretation and Museology. The government aspires for the place to become a “meeting place full of activity and people” with a “pluralistic, inclusive and contemporary” look. Work will begin in 2027.
The project to “reset” Quilgamoros cannot be understood without the legal framework that protects it. The name of the place was changed in October 2022, after the approval of the Democratic Memory Law, promoted by the PSOE government and Unidas Podemos. The rule, which officially replaced the name Valley of the Fallen with that of Cuelgamuros Valley, sought to dissociate the place from the glorification of Franco and the victims of the Civil War. Among its measures are the investigation into crimes committed during the 1936 coup, the war and the dictatorship, as well as the exhumation of the remains of Francisco Franco, carried out in November 2019, and other figures connected to the regime.
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