The project The base and the Cross won the international ideas competition announced by the Government to give a new meaning to the Cuelgamuros Valley, Franco’s former mausoleum. 34 proposals were presented and after making an initial selection, finally, this Tuesday, the winning project was chosen.
The jury, chaired by Iñaqui Carnicero, general secretary of Urban Agenda, Construction and Architecture, included, as advisor, a representative of the Catholic Church, Daniel Alberto Escobar Portillo, former member of the Escolanía del Valle. Also present were the artist Cristina Iglesias; architects David Chipperfield, Fuensanta Nieto; Maria Langarita; the Secretary of State for Culture, Jordi Martí; the director of real estate and natural environment of the National Heritage, Luis Pérez de Prada; the general director of Agenda Urbana, María Teresa Verdú and the anthropologist Francisco Ferrándiz.
Last March, the Government announced its intention to launch the competition for the redevelopment of the complex, an operation which has a budget of 30.5 million euros and whose final execution will depend, to a large extent, on when the next electoral call will be held and what its result will be. The jury met for the first time to deliberate on July 23 and decided that the project would not only have artistic or architectural features, but would also be approached from an “emotional, political and spiritual dimension”, so the selected teams were asked to integrate this approach into their proposal and to present a new plan that included those premises within a period of two months.
