Officials have asked for a permit to begin unearthing corpses in the Valley of the Fallen, a vast mausoleum on the outskirts of Madrid built by former Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco, according to a presidential statement released Monday.
The remains are buried in the crypt of the Basilica of the Holy Cross, and some of them have been claimed by family members, the ministry said.
The project will involve construction work that will allow workers to safely access and remove debris.
The application was submitted after the government approved 665,000 euros ($ 793,000) in funding for the project on March 30.
It is believed that since 1959, the remains of more than 33,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War have been shipped to the Fall Valley across the country. The crypts containing the remains have not been opened since, according to the ministry.
The structural analysis of the crypts carried out between 2017 and 2019 made it possible for officials to identify possible entries into the crypts, the ministry added.
On March 29, the ministry also announced the allocation of three million euros ($ 3.58 million) for a larger program dedicated to “the search, identification and dignity of persons missing during the civil war and dictatorship.”
The Fall Valley was partially built by the political prisoners of the French regime. Franco himself was buried in the basilica when he died in 1975, but in October 2019 his remains were exhumed and moved to the nearby Mingorrubio State Cemetery in El Pardo, 12 miles north of Madrid, where his wife is buried.
The exhumation was a key political promise for Sanchez when he came to power in 2018.
Franco’s family and his far-right supporters opposed the plan, and the family unsuccessfully challenged the decision in court.
The Valley of the Fallen has become an attraction for far-right tourists and supporters who hold annual rallies on the anniversary of Franco’s death on November 20.
Franco ruled Spain from the late 1930s until his death. Thousands of executions were carried out by his nationalist regime during the Spanish Civil War and in the following years.
In 2007, the Spanish government adopted the Law of Historical Memory, which formally condemned the Franco regime and banned political events in the Valley of the Fallen. It also recognizes the victims of the civil war and the Francoist state and promises help for the victims and their descendants.
CNN’s Aimee Lewis and Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.