In Perpetuity
Google is telling me today that it's the 166th anniversary of the birth of Emilia Pardo Bazán, a feminist writer born in A Coruña, and who was highly criticized during her lifetime for writing about working women and defending the education of women. She was a prolific writer, essayist, and speaker, and her most famous novel is Los Pazos de Ulloa, a novel about the decadence and rot at the heart of the traditional land-holding Galician aristocracy. I don't think she would have like Franco very much if she had lived to see the Civil War. He represented the pretentious land-holder she criticized in her novels.
Emilia inherited the remains of a castle, or pazo, that had been almost entirely destroyed by Napoleon's troops. She remodelled the castle, and built upon the ruins. The origins of the Pazo de Meirás are therefore sixteenth century, with rebuilding in the late nineteenth, and major work added in the late 1930's. Still, in pictures it has the aspect of a medieval fortification.
There, she lived and wrote when she wasn't in Madrid, where she died in 1921. Her son inherited the castle, but he and her grandson were assassinated in Madrid by anarchists. The castle then devolved to a surviving daughter and the son's widow. They gave the castle to a Jesuit community under certain conditions, but the conditions were never met and the women wanted the castle back. But the Jesuit community and the Nationalist mayor of Sada, township where the castle is situated, decided to donate the castle and its three hectares of ground to Francisco Franco Bahamonde, as a gesture of goodwill.
When the deal was announced, the women were not even allowed back into the castle to take out Emilia's belongings that were still there. The deal had been to give the castle and all its contents to the Generalissimo, including the private library of Emilia Pardo Bazán. Of course, work had to be done on the pazo to accommodate the new ruler of Spain. That involved money. A subscription committee was set up, and public and private workers had a part of their salary subtracted towards that work. Every township in the province of A Coruña had to give 5% of their tax money as "donations," and officials from each township went door to door to collect more "donations." Some gave willingly, others were forced to give willingly. The three hectares of land surrounding the pazo were augmented to six by expropriations. Most of the Pazo do Marqués de Bendaña in Dodro was dismantled and transported to Meirás, including a library, which was probably lost; Franco wasn't much into reading, just trophies.
The interior was pretty much changed to accord with the Francos' lifestyle and tastes. Hunting trophies were hung on the walls, and paintings of the dictator in various heroic poses went up, as well. Most of the original furniture went to the Real Academia Galega and the town hall of A Coruña, and furniture from the Palacio del Pardo in Madrid was brought in. Some personal objects were thrown out, such as an autographed photograph of Victor Hugo rescued by someone hired to work in the pazo. Other things were probably lost forever. The Francos were also "donated" objects for their new summer house. Heraldic blazons from the province of Pontevedra and horreos, granaries. Roman amphorae from the bay of A Coruña dotted the gardens, and religious figures went into the chapel, such as the statues of Abraham and Isaac which were originally in the Portico da Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago, though in the hands of the township of Santiago when the war ended. Mysteriously, they were ceded for an exposition by the Pazo de Meiras in the 1960's, and listed as belonging to His Excellency, Generalissimo Franco. There is no record of the "donation."
When Franco died in his bed in 1975, the pazo remained in the family. It has been so ever since then, and the family has no intention of returning it to the township of Sada. In 2008 it was declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Property of Cultural Interest) and the family was obliged to open it a minimum of four days a month to the public. The family has tried to oppose that and has done everything in its power to keep things as they were. Since there was no way out, and they were forced to open, they handed over the management of visits to the family foundation, Fundación Francisco Franco, a foundation set up to mainly honor Franco's memory and his "glory," but which is little more than a fascist club, and which gives out news on its website in the form of communiqués.
In one such communiqué on its website, the Foundation has declared that they will use the visits to show the public the "grandeur of the figure of Francisco Franco." They claim that the Galician and Spanish public are honored to host the non-official most important residence of the dictator, "..y sobre el recae parte de la gloria de quien lo habitó, probablemente el español de mayor relieve mundial desde Felipe II." "...And upon it falls part of the honor of he who inhabited it, probably the Spaniard of greatest world importance since Phillip II." Uh huh, whatever.
This year, protestors got into the pazo on a visit day and unfurled a sign from one of the towers, asking for the devolution of the castle to the township. The conservative president of the regional government, the Xunta de Galicia, encouraged the family to return the pazo to the people. A few days later, the Foundation suspended the visits to the pazo citing security issues. The Xunta levied a fine of four thousand euros and left it at that.
The worst thing that happened to Spain was not that we simply had a dictator who took what he liked, but that he died nobly in his bed instead of in prison.
Emilia inherited the remains of a castle, or pazo, that had been almost entirely destroyed by Napoleon's troops. She remodelled the castle, and built upon the ruins. The origins of the Pazo de Meirás are therefore sixteenth century, with rebuilding in the late nineteenth, and major work added in the late 1930's. Still, in pictures it has the aspect of a medieval fortification.
There, she lived and wrote when she wasn't in Madrid, where she died in 1921. Her son inherited the castle, but he and her grandson were assassinated in Madrid by anarchists. The castle then devolved to a surviving daughter and the son's widow. They gave the castle to a Jesuit community under certain conditions, but the conditions were never met and the women wanted the castle back. But the Jesuit community and the Nationalist mayor of Sada, township where the castle is situated, decided to donate the castle and its three hectares of ground to Francisco Franco Bahamonde, as a gesture of goodwill.
When the deal was announced, the women were not even allowed back into the castle to take out Emilia's belongings that were still there. The deal had been to give the castle and all its contents to the Generalissimo, including the private library of Emilia Pardo Bazán. Of course, work had to be done on the pazo to accommodate the new ruler of Spain. That involved money. A subscription committee was set up, and public and private workers had a part of their salary subtracted towards that work. Every township in the province of A Coruña had to give 5% of their tax money as "donations," and officials from each township went door to door to collect more "donations." Some gave willingly, others were forced to give willingly. The three hectares of land surrounding the pazo were augmented to six by expropriations. Most of the Pazo do Marqués de Bendaña in Dodro was dismantled and transported to Meirás, including a library, which was probably lost; Franco wasn't much into reading, just trophies.
The interior was pretty much changed to accord with the Francos' lifestyle and tastes. Hunting trophies were hung on the walls, and paintings of the dictator in various heroic poses went up, as well. Most of the original furniture went to the Real Academia Galega and the town hall of A Coruña, and furniture from the Palacio del Pardo in Madrid was brought in. Some personal objects were thrown out, such as an autographed photograph of Victor Hugo rescued by someone hired to work in the pazo. Other things were probably lost forever. The Francos were also "donated" objects for their new summer house. Heraldic blazons from the province of Pontevedra and horreos, granaries. Roman amphorae from the bay of A Coruña dotted the gardens, and religious figures went into the chapel, such as the statues of Abraham and Isaac which were originally in the Portico da Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago, though in the hands of the township of Santiago when the war ended. Mysteriously, they were ceded for an exposition by the Pazo de Meiras in the 1960's, and listed as belonging to His Excellency, Generalissimo Franco. There is no record of the "donation."
When Franco died in his bed in 1975, the pazo remained in the family. It has been so ever since then, and the family has no intention of returning it to the township of Sada. In 2008 it was declared Bien de Interés Cultural (Property of Cultural Interest) and the family was obliged to open it a minimum of four days a month to the public. The family has tried to oppose that and has done everything in its power to keep things as they were. Since there was no way out, and they were forced to open, they handed over the management of visits to the family foundation, Fundación Francisco Franco, a foundation set up to mainly honor Franco's memory and his "glory," but which is little more than a fascist club, and which gives out news on its website in the form of communiqués.
In one such communiqué on its website, the Foundation has declared that they will use the visits to show the public the "grandeur of the figure of Francisco Franco." They claim that the Galician and Spanish public are honored to host the non-official most important residence of the dictator, "..y sobre el recae parte de la gloria de quien lo habitó, probablemente el español de mayor relieve mundial desde Felipe II." "...And upon it falls part of the honor of he who inhabited it, probably the Spaniard of greatest world importance since Phillip II." Uh huh, whatever.
This year, protestors got into the pazo on a visit day and unfurled a sign from one of the towers, asking for the devolution of the castle to the township. The conservative president of the regional government, the Xunta de Galicia, encouraged the family to return the pazo to the people. A few days later, the Foundation suspended the visits to the pazo citing security issues. The Xunta levied a fine of four thousand euros and left it at that.
The worst thing that happened to Spain was not that we simply had a dictator who took what he liked, but that he died nobly in his bed instead of in prison.
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| De FirkinCat - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 3.0 es, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16709094 |
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