The Junta de Castilla y León has named the known as the Pyramid of the Italians an asset of cultural interest (BIC), a monument in the province of Burgos to honor the Italian soldiers who supported the fascist uprising that sparked the Civil War.
Vox, a partner of the PP in the Community Government, demands on a national and regional level the protection of this type of tributes against the Democratic Memory Law, which persecutes these exhibitions of the Franco dictatorship and its allies.
The spokesperson for the Board, Carlos Fernández Carriedo (PP), has announced the declaration as BIC of “a unique asset within the cultural heritage of Castilla y León due to its design and aesthetic, architectural and landscape values.”
According to him, “the national regulations of Democratic Memory will be complied with.”
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The legal battle over the future of the fascist pyramid of Burgos
The news confirms the theses of Vox, who asks to defend this type of monuments or constructions linked to the dictatorship.
The Minister of Culture, Gonzalo Santonja, of the far-right party, had praised the “historical value” of the complex, highlighting its “artistic, historical and landscape” attributes of what for him is not “just another building”, but rather an architectural example. "very singular".
“History is also what they don't like,” Santonja argued.
The national regulations pursue potentially controversial constructions, such as the Pyramid of the Italians, that serve as “exaltation of the military uprising and the dictatorship, its leaders, participants in the repressive system or organizations, and the collaboration units between the Franco regime and the Axis powers during the Second World War.”
Carriedo has stated that they have received four allegations that have not been successful and has assured that “the law will be complied with.”
One of them, he has indicated, came from the Secretary of State because the owner was not identified, who must be responsible for the care and maintenance of this category of property.
The spokesperson has stated that since 1969 the pyramid belongs to the Brotherhood Association of the Rivera de Herbosa.
Santonja noted in his day that the decision to grant BIC status came from a “very well-argued” request from an individual.
The building, about 20 meters high and built of concrete, began to be erected in 1937, two years before it was inaugurated, to honor the hundreds of dead among the thousands of Italian soldiers sent by the dictator Benito Mussolini to help Francis. Frank.
Mussolini commanded some 70,000 men who were essential to take Bilbao in 1937, overcome the difficulties of the Burgos mountain and liquidate the republican troops garrisoned in those areas.
Later, Franco ordered the creation of the Ebro reservoir, near the monument, to punish the area for its rebellion.
The pyramid housed 360 dead transalpine soldiers until in 1971, after a serious bus accident on the road leading to space, many were repatriated or sent to Zaragoza.
The construction, today looted and the object of visits and worship by neo-fascist groups, has engravings that evoke Italian fascism such as the symbol of the bundle of arrows, of Etruscan origin but copied by Mussolini as a symbol of strength.
A hole allows light to pass through and illuminate a “Present, present, present.”
The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory has announced that it will fulfill its threat to report Santonja to the Prosecutor's Office, for administrative prevarication, if the Board, which it shares with the PP, declared the monument BIC, which "pays tribute to the fascist army of Mussolini” and “celebrates his terrible and fearsome role in the coup d'état” to “humiliate the victims of the Franco dictatorship and celebrate the crimes of fascism in Europe in the mid-20th century,” according to this organization.
The complex is located in the town of Valle de Valdebezana (Burgos, 350 inhabitants), whose mayor, Félix Ruiz (Ciudadanos), described a year ago in EL PAÍS as “authentically barbaric and absurd” that the idea of destroying the Pyramid was being contemplated: “It is “It was built to collect scattered corpses of soldiers to give them a dignified burial and bring them together, it is not an exaltation of the dictatorship.”