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Some 60km northwest of Madrid midway between the towns of El Escoril and Guadarrama an enormous cross stands in the middle of a giant pine forest. It's quite hard to get there. Indeed, without a car, we would probably never have done so. It doesn't even seem to receive a lot of publicity, but then again, the Spanish Civil War is still a very touchy subject.
The cross and the carved figures at its base represent the monument to those who died in Spain's bloody civil war between 1936 and 1939. At a very basic level it was fascism against communism, but in reality it was a very complex conflict. The cross can be reached by a funicular railway but when we visited, it was closed. The footpaths in the hills were closed too. Apparently there is some restoration work going on with the statues and it's made things pretty dangerous. There was no information as to when this might be completed which was a real shame.
Underneath the cross is the cavernous Basilica which was hewn out of the rock. It's like a massive cave which has been turned into a church. It's a pretty controversial construction though
as the manual labourers may or may not have been convicts. There seems to be no definite information about this but what cannot be disputed is the fact that many people died during the construction work.
What makes it even more controversial is that the Basilica is the final resting place of Franco, the dictator who even today polarises opinion and is rarely spoken about. Photography inside was forbidden but a First Communion celebration was taking place and it seemed that the rules regarding cameras were being overlooked for the day. Lucky us!!
Nearby we believe there is a monastery where you can stay. We didn't find it but Google Maps suggest that, had we followed the signs we didn't have too much further to go. Unfortunately our fuel light was already on and we didn't want to do any more mileage than was necessary! We did find an abandoned hotel close to the funicular station but it looks like it hasn't been used for some time.
There is a lot more information on
Wikipedia but we don't want to go into a lot of detail on this blog. Instead, hopefully you will enjoy the photos and
decide for yourself if it's an excursion you would like to take. We are glad we went. Our one regret was not taking a picnic with us because the weather was perfect and there are plenty of open spaces where you could enjoy your lunch.
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Cat of Sunshine and Siestas
non-member comment
Missed it!
I had my Madrileño native partner take me to El Escorial a few summers ago. I'm a bit macabre and really wanted to see Valle de los Caídos (and his family has history in the Civil War - his maternal grandfather fought against Franco), but the PSOE had closed it down. A shame, as I think it's an important piece of Spain's history. Will try and make it up before they kick Rajoy out of office!