Valle de los Caídos

This vast and controversial monument sits in the Sierra de Guadarrama northwest of Madrid, built between 1940 and 1959 under the Franco dictatorship. It comprises an immense basilica tunnelled deep into a granite mountain and crowned by a towering stone cross visible for miles. Constructed partly with the forced labour of political prisoners, it was intended to commemorate the dead of the Spanish Civil War. Its history has made it a subject of intense national debate over memory.