El Fossar de la Pedrera
Lluís Companys Tomb at the Fossar de la Pedrera.
The Fossar de la Pedrera (lit. Cemetery of the Quarry) is located on Montjuïc hill in the Sants-Montjuïc district of Barcelona. Forming part of the Montjuïc Cemetery, it was used as a mass grave for 4,000 victims of Spain's White Terror.[1] There is now a little-known memorial on the site.[2][3]
Since 1985, the area also houses the remains of Lluís Companys, the 123rd President of Catalonia, who was executed there by the Francoist regime on 15 October 1940.[4] His death is commemorated annually by Catalan politicians and civilians, who lay a wreath in memory of the president.
History Edit
In 1985, a memorial designed by architects Beth Galí, Marius Quintana and Pere Casajoana was opened, comprising a set of columns with the names of the victims, a large garden with tombstones, and the mausoleum of Lluís Companys. The inscriptions on the entrance were written by Maria Aurelia Capmany: one refers to the victims of repression, another victims of fortune, and includes the names of those who died reprisals after the war, whether they had been buried there as or not. The memorial was inaugurated on 27 October 1985 by President Jordi Pujol, the mayor of Barcelona, and relatives of Lluís Companys.
There are also a number of other memorials on the site, including a tribute to the victims of Nazism opened on the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, a bronze figure in memory of all those executed by Franco's regime, and a memorial to CNT members who died in defence of freedom.
