Why does the CAP Passeig de Maragall still appear in the name of a Francoist union?

BarcelonaThe current CAP Passeig de Maragall, in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona, still appears today –half a century after Franco's death– in the name of the Spanish Falange (FET y de las JONS). Despite the Generalitat managing the center and assuming all maintenance costs, the registered ownership remains in the hands of the dictatorship's political apparatus. This is the most disconcerting finding of the research by historian Neus Moran, who documents how the State protected health heritage from Francoist plunder before the transfer of powers.

Practically all the major public hospitals of the Institut Català de la Salut and the historic primary care centers (CAP) are affiliated with the Generalitat. However, a paradox exists: in many cases, ownership does not belong to the Catalan government, but to the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS). This situation forces the Generalitat to assume the costs of maintenance, renovations, and investments for facilities it does not own. In other words, it has management but not the assets. There are other consequences. The transfer of buildings is strictly conditioned to health use. If a center becomes disused, as has happened with the old CAP Sant Elies (Barcelona), or as will happen when the Trueta in Girona moves to its new location, the Generalitat cannot decide its future. The TGSS has the final say and can block any alternative use for the neighborhood.

It's not that the TGSS has been investing and acquiring assets over 50 years of democracy. Created in September 1978, it was established as the body responsible for administering the assets of the Social Security system. Upon its inception, it inherited a broad and heterogeneous legacy from the defunct National Institute of Social Security (INP) and from the Obra Sindical 18 de Julio, the health branch of the Francoist regime's vertical union. During the dictatorship, the INP was the one pulling the strings of social security and the one that built some of the major hospitals (such as the current Hospital Vall d'Hebron, originally called Residencia Sanitaria Francisco Franco).

A substantial part of this heritage originates from the confiscations of the dictatorship, which affected the labor and associative movement as well as institutions and individuals. The CAP Passeig de Maragall had been, before the dictatorship, the Ginecós clinic, but with the Francoist victory it passed into the hands of the fascist vertical union. "It is a shocking case," states Moran, Ciutat de Barcelona Award 2025 for the research L'espoli general (L'Avenç). Surprisingly, according to the registration data, and as the ARA has been able to verify in the Property Registry, the property is still registered in the name of the "National Delegation of Unions of the F.E.T. and of the J.O.N.S." The big question is: how can it be that, in the 21st century, a fascist party that was suppressed in 1977 appears as the owner of a CAP?

How did it pass into the hands of the Falange?

The Ginecós Institute was born in 1923 as a public limited company driven by a group of doctors –Climent Selvas, Enric Baldocchi, Emili Ardèvol, Joan Riera, and Salvador Casanovas– and the industrialist Josep Lafitte. The center, specializing in gynecology and obstetrics, was located on Garrotxa street (currently, Maragall promenade) with a stable medical team and state-of-the-art facilities for the time: about sixty rooms, cutting-edge operating rooms, and central heating. In 1925, a second pavilion was built and shares were issued.

"The building of the old Ginecós hospital was integrated into the Obra Sindical 18 de Julio as Clínica Victoria. The operation, formalized in November 1942, included the donation of surgical material and 10,000 pesetas to the new institution, a truly disconcerting fact," explains Moran. The center became part of the Compulsory Health Insurance (SEO), had a capacity of 140 beds and treated surgical specialties, chronic patients, and retirees. "In a 1963 hospital catalog, only two hospitals in Barcelona appear as property of the Obra Sindical 18 de Julio: Clínica Victoria, classified as a provincial surgical center dependent on the General Secretariat of the Movement, and the Santa Lucía Ophthalmic Nursing Home, on Anglí street," details Zarzoso. Lack of investment during Franco's regime degraded its appearance. After a period of disuse, the building was demolished in February 1989. On the same plot, the new CAP Passeig de Maragall was built, which was inaugurated on November 8, 1997.

How is it possible that in 2026 it continues in the name of the Spanish Traditionalist Phalanx and the Councils of National Syndicalist Offensive (FET y de las JONS)? "In principle, it cannot be because the historical Phalanx disappeared in April 1977 and, therefore, it is negligence on the part of the administration. It is a case of dereliction of duty. Today there are other phalanxes (and this is stated in the list of political formations of the Ministry of the Interior) that are fascist groups, but I wouldn't want to think they are the owners," states Thomàs.

The Ginecós clinic is just one of the 110 properties studied by Moran to document the origin of the healthcare heritage that the Generalitat has occupied since the transfer of powers agreed in 1981, but which remains state-owned. Moran's research, which the ARA was able to consult after requesting it through Transparency, has encountered persistent administrative opacity, and tracing the documentary trail is still a complex task today. "I have not been able to access the property registry records –explains Moran–. The lack of documentation makes it difficult to reconstruct this map. Furthermore, it has not been possible to locate the complete inventories of the Generalitat's heritage during the Second Republic, although there is evidence that they existed for the years 1932 and 1937".

And what about the headquarters of the Catalan Health Institute?It was not a secret: the 1995 letter

The anomaly of the CAP Passeig de Maragall has not gone unnoticed by the administration, but no government has taken the definitive step to correct it. In 1995, during the processing of the new CAP Passeig de Maragall, an urban planning report already warned that the plot was still in the name of the National Delegation of Syndicates. This newspaper has been able to verify this in the Sant Martí Archive. The document specifies that the situation is being regularized within the process of transfer from the State to the Generalitat and clarifies that the cession of the road corresponding to Passeig de Maragall "cannot be ceded until the property is registered in the name of the Institut Català de la Salut". Even so, in 1997 the new building was inaugurated on a property that, officially, holds a great mystery. According to the Property Registry, it still belongs to the political apparatus of Francoism, and according to the asset inventory that the Generalitat has open, it is the property of the TGSS.It is not the only singular case. "Between 1958 and 1961, Barcelona City Council also completed the transfer by exchange to the National Social Security Institute of the property where the CAP Sant Andreu currently operates. The building and land had been acquired in 1952 by Edificadora Barcelonesa S.A., a trusted developer of municipal power, without clear information about the first owners," details Moran. The historian has traced other buildings: the CAP Sant Martí de Provençals, on Fluvià street, is located on land acquired by the Urban Planning Commission in 1958 and later registered, in 1967, in the name of the National Social Security Institute. The CAP Gavà was also donated by the municipality's city council to the INP in 1975 on the condition of building a clinic; in 1983, two years after the transfer of powers to the Generalitat, the TGSS registered the ownership in its favor. The CAP Doctor Robert in Badalona, formerly the Comarcal Union House, and the CAP Montcada i Reixac, formerly the Local Union House, were donated to the INP by the local delegations of the Brotherhood of Farmers and Ranchers, an organization within the Vertical Syndicate, in the years 1957 and 1971.

Some of the major projects that the dictatorship did bring to reality, such as the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, had already been part of the political plan of the Second Republic. Three prominent members of the Group of Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture (Gatcpac), Josep-Lluís Sert (future dean of architecture at Harvard), Josep Torres-Clavé, and Joan B. Subirana, the authors of the Central Antituberculosis Dispensary (1934) in Raval, Barcelona, projected in 1936 the great Antituberculosis Hospital of Vall d'Hebron: a new healthcare facility with 9 floors and 400 beds, in the same location where the current hospital center was eventually built. "A similar situation occurred with the assets of the Commonwealth extinguished during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. At that time, many properties passed to the State, but with the Republic they were returned to the Generalitat. At that time, there was political will to do so," says Moran.

And what about the headquarters of the Catalan Health Institute?

There are more unusual cases that Moran has found during his research. On Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas in Barcelona, where the headquarters of the Catalan Institute of Health is now located, there were various privately owned buildings – such as Casa Bonet or Casa Viuda Baixeras – that were affected by the bombings of March 1938.

After the war, the Reconstruction Committee of the Barcelona City Council, presided over by Ignasi Ventosa Despujol, took over the management of urban reconstruction, including the granting of building permits, the recovery of assets, and the planning of new actions. In some cases, owners were forced to demolish buildings and bear the costs, a situation that generated complaints and lawsuits. There is evidence of various reconstruction requests that remained paralyzed for years, while the administration advanced its own projects.

On January 8, 1940, for example, Dolors Batlló Bofill, then wife of the pharmacist Josep Andreu Miralles, submitted an application to rebuild the building at number 589. The petition included the technical project, the corresponding plans, and a request for exemption from payment of construction fees, given that it was a property classified as affected by war damage. Despite complying with administrative requirements, file number 2553 remained paralyzed for years, probably because the land had already been designated for the construction of the future headquarters of the National Provident Institute.

In February 1945, the municipal architect sent a letter to the Urban Planning Commission indicating that no documentation had been submitted by the Batlló family. The report stated: “No application or documentation has been submitted, nor is there any trace of works initiated on the plot, which, along with the adjacent properties demolished to the line of Gran Vía, is owned by the National Provident Institute for the construction of a social building, according to the notice installed on the same site.” Currently, the building is also owned by the General Treasury and is the headquarters of the Catalan Institute of Health.