The Valley of the Fallen is a Catholic basilica and monumental memorial near Madrid in Spain.
Apart from the Benedictine abbey and basilica, it’s most striking feature is the 500-foot-tall cross, the tallest in the world!
It’s construction started in 1940 and took nearly 20 years to complete. At the time, it cost over a billion Spanish pesetas or around $7 million dollars.
Sadly, a new Spanish law threatens the future of the Valley of Fallen, named such for being the final resting place of victims from both sides of the Spanish Civil War, 66 of which have been recognized by the Church as martyrs and 40 of which declared Servants of God.
The law plans on closing parts of it down and re-signifying the basilica.
So far, the changes have included renaming the Valley of the Fallen to the Valley of the Hanging Walls and shutting down the Foundation of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen that helped fund the Benedictine monks there.
The cross would only be protected if it ends up being declared “of cultural interest” in May of 2023 by the local Madrid government.
However, those protections wouldn’t extend to the basilica.
Other changes coming could be possibly kicking out the Benedictine monks and closing the boarding school, chapel, restaurant, library, gym, guesthouses and lounges there.
Pray for the Faith in Spain!
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Photo credit: Godot13 via Wikimedia
