A great crack: this is the project that has won the competition to redefine the Valley of the Fallen

The project The base and the cross has won the international competition to redefine the Valley of the FallenIn total, 34 proposals were submitted to the international competition, which has a budget of 30.5 million euros. As the Spanish government explained on Tuesday, the project consists of a "great fissure" that will transform the Cuelgamuros Valley into a place of dialogue and pluralism. One of the project's proposals is the demolition of the staircase that currently provides access to the basilica, which will be replaced by a new platform and a courtyard running through it. The Secretary General for Urban Agenda, Iñaqui Carnicero, said that the winning proposal is "bold." "It is a project that dares to challenge the existing structure. It proposes a new perspective on the monument, redefines its boundaries, and gives greater prominence to nature and architecture. It breaks the axiality that has always characterized it, creating a large shadow, a great fissure that facilitates encounters and fosters greater pluralism, inviting dialogue and opening up new perspectives," he stated. Carnicero explained that, through a "large slab," the public will access a circle "open to the sky" that will allow for "reorganizing circulation." From this point, it will be possible to enter the interior of the basilica, where "minimal interventions" will be carried out. The project, as stated in the press release, goes beyond an architectural, landscape, and artistic reinterpretation: "It is a work with the responsibility of redefining this space as a place of memory, recognition, commemoration, and homage, and of social and cultural integration." For now, the authors of the project are unknown, as the competition was anonymous, but they will be made public in the coming hours. The jury was chaired by Iñaqui Carnicero and included Fernando Martínez, representing the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory; Jordi Martí, representing the Ministry of Culture; and Luis Pérez, representing the board of directors of National Heritage. María Teresa Verdú, representing the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, and Elena Calama, serving as secretary, were also involved. They received technical advice from Francisco Ferrándiz and were represented by Daniel Alberto Escobar from the Catholic Church. In fact, negotiations with the Church took place before the international competition was launched to agree on several points, including leaving the basilica and abbey untouched.

"It's an enormously complex task," said British architect and Pritzker Prize winner David Chipperfield, who was present at the unveiling of the winning project. One only needs to read the words of the architects of a monument that fulfilled Franco's egocentric dream. The entire landscape of Cuelgamuros is designed to exalt the Francoist vision of the Civil War and the dictatorship, while concealing the material traces of the violence upon which the complex was built: the penal colonies where prisoners and their families eked out a living for years in miserable conditions. Not to mention the remains of more of 33,800 peopleMany of these individuals were buried without their families' consent. One of the few details released about the "minimal" intervention in the basilica is that there will be information panels about the people buried in the crypts. The project includes the construction of an interpretation center that will explain how and why Cuelgamuros was built.