Visiting the Valley of the Fallen
 

My father and I will be in Madrid this October and we'd really like to visit the Valley of the Fallen again. I understand that the "monument" is closed to the public indefinitely, but with my limited Spanish language skills I gather that the basilica is open for worship. We'd love to attend mass there. Does anyone know how this can be done?

Closed until they decide what to do!The place gives me the creeps!
I read this week that the latest suggestion is to remove Franco's body and bury him with his wife in the Pardo.
Then the place will reopen as a memorial to all who suffered during the civil war.I really don't consider it worthy of attending mass there.

I wonder if you have an understanding of what this place represents, but I also might understand if your father felt connected somehow in the past.

There is always a discusstion about visting the Valle de los Caídos since it used slave labor including prisoners who fought against Franco during the Civil War.

And there is no shortage of churhes and cathedrals in Spain for masses.

I don't understand why a simple question about a site that is mentioned in every Spain travel guide is used as an opportunity to try to intimidate or belittle others. This is a travel website, not a political forum. It doesn't matter why I want to visit the Valley of the Fallen. It's none of your business. If you have pertinent information that is responsive to my question, please provide it. Otherwise, stop with the lecturing.

Good for you, Roundtrip.

When I travel I like to know about the coutnry I am visiting, the good and the bad, others do not. Spain is a wonderful country to visit, no matter how one chooses to do so.

Roundtrip, I found our visit to Valle de los Caídos amazing. I understand that the building of the site was and is controversial but it remains a testimony to the tragic history of mid 20th century Europe. An interesting book which covers the subject is GHOSTS OF SPAIN, Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past by Giles Tremlett.

Hope you have a rewarding trip…

Maybe additional information will also be considered a lecture but...

Even though the Civil War has been over more than 70 years in many ways still permeates Spanish society. Even the uber hip Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's movie of a few years ago, Volver (To Return in English), was considered by some as an allegory of how the Civil War still influences the country. The movie begins by women cleaning tombstones and ends with how people deal with ghosts.

Call me a party pooper, smasher of rose-colored glasses, or whatever but some visitors are interested in a fuller picture.

Roundtrip,

You are over sensitive. This is a forum whether you like the interpretation of the word or not, the direction taken or the well intentioned advice or information.

The Valle de los Caídos/Valley of the Fallen has always been controversial in Spain as it rightfully has been understood as a tribute to the Franco regime. The last years has seen a very increased politization of the matter, since the so called "pact of forgetting" after Franco's death in 1975 has been dissolved with the huge uncovering of mass graves throughout the country (more than 50 000 bodies of Franco victims, all ages and both sexes, has been found in the past few years). Since 2007 the usual fascist ralleys at the monument has been banned.

You should know this to be able to make a well informed judgement on whether or not to attend mass at the place. Many tourists haven't had the faintest idea of what this monument really is about, apart from the official and absurd presentation in the past of beeing an homeage to "all" the fallen in the Civil War.

A senior figure in the Brotherhood of the Valle de los Caídos and a Franco family friend recently wrote a favourable entry about the dictator in a new national biography to huge public outrage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...hy?INTCMP=SRCH

Roundtrip, I'll try to get updated information, I've only found this: http://www.cuelgamuros.com/horarios.htm that states "since Feb 2011"

The monument was conceived and built as a memorial to those who fell during the civil war. Buried there are over 33.000 identified bodies from both sides. The decission to bury there Franco's remains came directly from King Juan Carlos.
No surprise that spanish comunists even want the monument to be blown up, they burned the churches in 1931, and destroyed many religious monuments during the war. For example: http://www.cerrodelosangeles.es/monu...guo/index.html
The "slave labour" issue is a much repeated lie: http://www.libertaddigital.com/socie...os-1276409963/ (only in spanish).
I agree with Roundtrip that this is a travel forum. But as others have a different opinion, I am thus posting this.