In Spain, the government has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to the winners of an architectural competition to “redefine” the Valley of Cuelgamuros – a Franco-era monument formerly known as the Valley of the Fallen – amid legal battles aimed at stopping the project.
The monument was originally built to commemorate the victims of the Spanish Civil War who fought for the nationalists and was the burial place of General Francisco Franco until 2019, as well as being home to a basilica and a community of Benedictine monks.
It is also home to the largest cross in the world.
The government wants to reinterpret it as “a tool at the service of reconciliation and collective memory.”
The agreement signed last March by the minister of the presidency, Félix Bolaños, and Cardinal José Cobo, the archbishop of Madrid, was released by the Spanish newspaper El Debate and shows that the places designated for worship are the altar and the pews.
“Access to the space intended for worship will be independent and will take place through the main entrance of the basilica, and such independent access must be respected and allowed,” the document reads.
While the government presses ahead with its efforts, a number of legal challenges have been filed to try to stop the controversial redefinition.
In February this year, the Christian Lawyers Foundation filed an administrative complaint with the National Court against the agreement.
One of the foundation’s key arguments was that Cobo did not have the ecclesial authority to sign the agreement because “the Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen, [is] a pontifical basilica whose modification requires the express intervention of the Holy See.”
The Benedictine community based in the valley also filed an administrative appeal against the redefinition after the competition was announced. Their appeal was one of nine filed.
El Debate also reported that there were legal challenges based on canon law, religious freedom, and the argument that the decision violates international agreements between the Holy See and Spain.
In January Cardinal Cobo made comments that during “complex” negotiations it was made clear that “the monks would remain in the valley, that worship would be protected, that the basilica would be protected with independent access, and that the interior and exterior religious signs would be respected.”