Franco’s heirs ordered to return summer palace to Spanish state

‘It was very important that the sentence said the palace should become public heritage. It belongs to all’

James Badcock

A COURT in Spain has ruled that a palace once used as a summer residence by the dictator Francisco Franco must be handed over to the state, after his descendants fought to have it recognised as theirs.

The Pazo de Meirás, a mansion with crenellated towers amid 16 acres of lush grounds in Galicia, has been used by the dictator’s family since Franco was given the property in 1938. But a judge in the city of A Coruña has ruled the property was not a personal possession of the dictator, meaning he could not legally bequeath it to his heirs.

Last year, the Spanish government announced it was joining a legal battle started by local authorities in Galicia to wrest away ownership of the palace from Franco’s seven grandchildren.

The judge has sided with the argument of local activists and legal experts, which holds that Franco received the property in 1938 as a donation from local dignitaries in his capacity as “selfproclaimed head of state”, and not as a gift to his person. Three years later, the property was formally registered under Franco’s name, but the judge ruled that the contract of purchase drawn up in 1941 was “a fiction”, making his grandchildren’s inheritance of the mansion null and void.

“Franco bought nothing,” Judge Marta Canales said in her ruling, ordering the heirs to relinquish the property.

During the Franco regime, from 1939 until his death in 1975, state money was used to expand and maintain the property. The Franco family also lost a legal battle last year when they unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Left-wing government from exhuming the dictator’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen state monument.

Local authorities celebrated the decision, which comes after years of confrontation with the Franco family, who were reluctant to allow public visits to the property, which is listed as a building of public interest.

After inheriting the palace from Carmen Franco, the dictator’s only daughter, the grandchildren put the palace up for sale in 2018 with a price tag of €8 million (£7 million).

“It was very important that the sentence said the palace should become public heritage. It is a property that belongs to all,” said Benito Portela, the mayor of Sada, which includes the village of Meirás boundaries.

For Carlos Babío, co-author of a historical study of the building, who says locals were forced to pay for the original donation and lost lands as the palace grounds were expanded, the ruling is “historical”. He said: “Today the country has become a little more normal in terms of democracy.”

Luis Felipe Utrera-molina, the Francos’ lawyer, said the family “disagreed absolutely” with the ruling, and that they would be appealing.