Montserrat Menasanch de Tobaruela - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Montserrat Menasanch de Tobaruela
Vi Reunio D Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Les Ciutats Tardoantigues D Hispania Cristianitzacio I Topografia Valencia 8 9 I 10 De Maig De 2003 2005 Isbn 84 7283 826 9 Pags 375 384, 2005
V Reunio D Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Cartagena 16 19 D Abril De 1998 V Reunion De Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Cartagena 16 19 De Abril 1998 2000 Isbn 84 7283 502 2 Pags 211 222, 2000
Arqueología y Territorio Medieval, 1994
Arqueología y Territorio Medieval, 2000
V Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Cartagena (1998), 2000
VI Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Valencia (2003), 2005
Actas de las Jornadas sobre la Zona Arqueológica de Villaricos, 2007
Books by Montserrat Menasanch de Tobaruela
British Archaeological Reports, Int. Ser. 1132, 2003
Archaeology of Fascism by Montserrat Menasanch de Tobaruela
In the valley of Cuelgamuros, 56 km north-west of Madrid, Spain, a monumental complex was created... more In the valley of Cuelgamuros, 56 km north-west of Madrid, Spain, a monumental complex was created between 1940 and 1959 by a military dictatorship, which emerged out of a devastating war against a democratic state. Extraordinary public funds and the forced labour of political prisoners were deployed in its construction in a country ruined by three years of war. In order to provide the monument with a specific meaning, from 1959–1983, but mostly in the first half of the 1960s, more than 33 000 corpses were unearthed from cemeteries and mass graves scattered all over Spain, frequently without the permission of the relatives, and transported to the valley. These remains are not only those of war casualties, but also of republicans starved, tortured and killed by the Franco army, the Guardia Civil, and Falangist party members. These corpses were immured in the underground construction or “basilica”, while José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Falange Española, and Francisco Franco were buried in 1959 and 1975, respectively, on either side of the altar under the central dome. To this day, a community of Benedictine monks, devoted to the cult of the “fallen”, hold a daily service amidst the thousands of human remains. After more than forty years of democracy, a Spanish government has recently been able to remove the dictator Franco from Cuelgamuros. A number of families, however, continue to claim the remains of their relatives in order to free them from this space of terror.
The aim of our study is to unveil and visualise the historical meaning of the monument from an historical, archaeological, forensic, and political perspective, showing the fundamentally violent character of the state that conceived and used it, and the direct personal relationship between the dictator and the monument right from its initial conception through its construction, to the ritual violence still practiced in it today. The whole complex of Cuelgamuros was erected and continues to function as a monument of terror to remind Spanish society of what can happen if it challenges the relations of oppression and exploitation.
Vi Reunio D Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Les Ciutats Tardoantigues D Hispania Cristianitzacio I Topografia Valencia 8 9 I 10 De Maig De 2003 2005 Isbn 84 7283 826 9 Pags 375 384, 2005
V Reunio D Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Cartagena 16 19 D Abril De 1998 V Reunion De Arqueologia Cristiana Hispanica Cartagena 16 19 De Abril 1998 2000 Isbn 84 7283 502 2 Pags 211 222, 2000
Arqueología y Territorio Medieval, 1994
Arqueología y Territorio Medieval, 2000
V Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Cartagena (1998), 2000
VI Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Valencia (2003), 2005
Actas de las Jornadas sobre la Zona Arqueológica de Villaricos, 2007
British Archaeological Reports, Int. Ser. 1132, 2003
In the valley of Cuelgamuros, 56 km north-west of Madrid, Spain, a monumental complex was created... more In the valley of Cuelgamuros, 56 km north-west of Madrid, Spain, a monumental complex was created between 1940 and 1959 by a military dictatorship, which emerged out of a devastating war against a democratic state. Extraordinary public funds and the forced labour of political prisoners were deployed in its construction in a country ruined by three years of war. In order to provide the monument with a specific meaning, from 1959–1983, but mostly in the first half of the 1960s, more than 33 000 corpses were unearthed from cemeteries and mass graves scattered all over Spain, frequently without the permission of the relatives, and transported to the valley. These remains are not only those of war casualties, but also of republicans starved, tortured and killed by the Franco army, the Guardia Civil, and Falangist party members. These corpses were immured in the underground construction or “basilica”, while José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Falange Española, and Francisco Franco were buried in 1959 and 1975, respectively, on either side of the altar under the central dome. To this day, a community of Benedictine monks, devoted to the cult of the “fallen”, hold a daily service amidst the thousands of human remains. After more than forty years of democracy, a Spanish government has recently been able to remove the dictator Franco from Cuelgamuros. A number of families, however, continue to claim the remains of their relatives in order to free them from this space of terror.
The aim of our study is to unveil and visualise the historical meaning of the monument from an historical, archaeological, forensic, and political perspective, showing the fundamentally violent character of the state that conceived and used it, and the direct personal relationship between the dictator and the monument right from its initial conception through its construction, to the ritual violence still practiced in it today. The whole complex of Cuelgamuros was erected and continues to function as a monument of terror to remind Spanish society of what can happen if it challenges the relations of oppression and exploitation.