Tim McNulty
A mass grave thought to contain victims of General Franco, has been uncovered in Madrid’s largest cemetery.
Bones belonging to 3,000 executed civilians were discovered in La Almudena graveyard after heavy rains eroded the soil.
Thousand of people were shot in Madrid by Franco’s regime following the end of the civil war, the 80th anniversary of which is marked this year.
Anthropologist Franciso Ferrandiz told The Telegraph: “Spain is a land full of secrets, there is a growing awareness that there are also mass graves inside cemeteries.”
The uncovered remains are believed to contain the bodies of the ‘Thirteen Roses’, a group of young female socialist who were executed in 1939.
This grisly discovery comes as the Spanish government approves plans to exhume the fascist dictator’s body from the imposing Valley of the Fallen mausoleum.
