Post a Comment Print Share on Facebook
Featured corrupción Crímenes Turquía Petróleo Feijóo

More than 200 burials in the Alcázar de Toledo, in the spotlight of the Law of Memory

A Franco law allowed the burial in his crypt of those who remained in the Alcázar during the siege of 1936.

- 14 reads.

More than 200 burials in the Alcázar de Toledo, in the spotlight of the Law of Memory

A Franco law allowed the burial in his crypt of those who remained in the Alcázar during the siege of 1936

MADRID, 20 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

A total of 1,785 people remained locked inside the Alcazar of Toledo for 68 days in 1936, until the rebel troops entered the city in one of the most symbolic deeds of the Civil War for the Francoist Army. Of these, more than 200 are buried in their crypt, put in the spotlight after the approval of the Democratic Memory Law.

On July 21, 1936, the rebels took refuge with their relatives in the Alcázar, giving rise to a long siege by Republican troops that would not end until more than two months later, on September 27, when the Army of Franco managed to enter the city.

In total, the Alcázar was a refuge for 1,785 people including military personnel, volunteers, family members and more than 200 children. A later law of the dictator Franco dictated that all of them had the right to be buried in his crypt.

Currently, the tomb houses just over 200 bodies, among which are those of José Moscardó, then a colonel and the highest military authority in Toledo as director of the Central Gymnastics School. Also buried there is Jaime Milans del Bosch, only 21 years old during the siege and known for joining Antonio Tejero's attempted coup from Valencia in 1981.

The last burial in the crypt of the Alcázar took place in 2018, when Brigadier General Federico Fuentes Gómez de Salazar died, the last fighter of the Alcázar de Toledo who was left alive.

The situation of the Alcázar is now in the spotlight after the approval of the Democratic Memory Law, which has already motivated the exhumation of the Francoist general Gonzalo Queipo de Llano from the Basilica de la Macarena in Seville.

The Ministry of Defense is currently responsible for the management of the Alcázar, headquarters of the Army museum, and has created a committee in charge of studying the application of the Memory Law in all headquarters and barracks of the Armed Forces.

This committee would be in charge of studying the exhumation of Moscardó and Queipo de Llano, although Defense sources assured Europa Press that it has not even held its first meeting to begin work on the application of the new legislation.

Minister Margarita Robles pointed out in any case that any action will not be immediate, since it will require a file in which the law even contemplates the hearing of the affected parties, which would lengthen the process.

The Law of Memory establishes that the mortal remains of "leaders" of the military coup of 1936 may not remain buried "in a preeminent place of public access" that could favor "the performance of public acts of exaltation, exaltation or commemoration of violations of human rights committed during the War or the Dictatorship".

Currently, the crypt of the Alcázar is closed to the public and does not fall within the route of the Army Museum. The relatives of those buried there can only access at certain times when the museum is closed.

In 2018, before the approval of the current Memory Law, the Government already denied that there was any public exaltation related to the soldiers buried in the Alcázar, given that the crypt is not one of the spaces included in the museological discourse of space.

As he stated at the time, he considered the crypt a private place "since it cannot be visited by the general public, there is a visiting procedure only for relatives of the buried, through which they can access the crypt on days when the Museum is open." closed to the public."

There is also a Brotherhood of Our Lady Santa María del Alcázar. "The Brotherhood responds to the firm purpose conceived during the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo to always keep alive the bonds of Christian fraternity and the patriotic spirit that reigned in those glorious days," he recounts on his website.

Among its activities, it carries out an annual procession between the Cathedral of Toledo and the Alcázar and a mass in its patio, although a representative of the Brotherhood has specified to Europa Press that any of its future acts will be subject to the authorization of the Ministry of Defense.