The Spanish Ministry of Democratic Memory and a team of specialist archaeologists from ArqueoAntro have resumed the search to find a mass grave containing the remains of 451 International Brigaders in Montecarmelo, Madrid.
The excavation site behind Fuencarral cemetery. The banner says, 'Excavations in search of Brigaders'. Photo: AABI.
The excavations, which began in mid-January, are taking place in an area behind Fuencarral cemetery, where Madrid City Council wants to build a recycling facility. Various Brigader groups, spearheaded by AABI (the Madrid-based Association of Friends of the International Brigades), have campaigned against these plans.
The excavations now focus on an area that, according to aerial photographs taken from an American plane in 1956, once indicated a natural depression in the ground. Archaeologists believe that this could be the site where the bodies were dumped into a mass grave in 1941 by Francoist forces.
A digger at work in Montecarmelo while members of the team from ArqueooAntro look on. Photo: Asociación Vecinal Montecarmelo.
Madrid authorities have repeatedly dragged their feet, delaying the excavations. A source from the Ministry is quoted in the Spanish daily El País as saying that, in the first phase of excavations last August, permission was sought but not then granted to work on this area. That has now changed.
However, given the limited funds available, the archaeologists have only 15 working days to complete their search.
Local community groups hope that if the Brigaders' remains are found, the City Council will put an end to its plans to install a waste management plant and that the site will become a legally protected place of remembrance for the 451 Brigaders buried there.
For more background on this story, see these earlier reports on the IBMT website:
AABI denounces Madrid authorities over Fuencarral mass grave
Survey findings ‘highly compatible’ with mass grave of Brigaders in Madrid