Spanish State Takes Possession Of Franco´s Summer Palace

The government have released a press statement announcing that the state has taken possession of the late dictator´s Pazo de Meirás estate in Galicia.

The announcement was made following the decision of the court in La Coruña for the Franco family to return the property to the state.

The estate had been in the hands of the Franco family since it was given as a gift to the late dictator by the people of Galicia in 1938 at the tail end of the Spanish Civil War.

General Franco had subsequently registered the gift as a purchase in 1941 and the property has been in the hands of the Franco family ever since.

However earlier this year the court ruled that the 1941 sale was ‘fraudulent’ and that both the 1938 donation and 1941 sale were  ‘null and void’ stating that the donation was made to ‘the head of state and not to Francisco Franco personally’.

The court also ruled that the 1941 sale was a sham as “Franco did not pay anything for it”.

The Franco family lost their appeal and this week saw the Spanish government formally take posession of the estate at a ceremony in the main house.

The repossession had been a goal of the Socialist PSOE led coalition government as part of their drive to erase the legacy of Franco’s dictatorship.

In 2019 the government successfully exhumed the body of the dictator from the Valley Of The Fallen mausuleum and have announced plans for a consultation as to its future use, possibly as a museum to the victims of war and represion.