The Palma cemetery inaugurates the Columbarium of Dignity for the victims of Francoism

PalmaThe Son Valentí cemetery in Palma inaugurated this Monday the Columbarium of Dignity, a space intended to house the remains of 225 victims of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The columbarium is presided over by the epitaph 'Here rest victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship'. During the solemn inauguration ceremony, the archaeologist and director of the various exhumation projects for missing repressed people in Mallorca, Xesc Busquets, explained that the columbarium houses the remains of "225 people who for too long remained in the pits of oblivion".

Among the people who rest in this space are Jaume Bauzà Far, Belarmina González Rodríguez, Francesc Llull Font, José Mercadal Marqués, Francesca Salas Llull, Gabriel Picornell Serra, Aurora Picornell Femenias and Gabriel Picornell Femenias, as well as Macià Salvà Coll and José Luis Santo Toribio del Castillo. Also resting there, provisionally, is Bartomeu Cabanellas, waiting for his family to decide what his final destination will be, as explained during the inauguration by the Minister of the Presidency, Antònia Estarellas.

“The recovery of a right”

The president of Memòria de Mallorca, Maria Antònia Oliver, highlighted the significance of the event and stressed that it is not simply the inauguration of a new space within the cemetery. “It is not the inauguration of just any space, but the recovery of a right that many victims of Francoism have not had until now and that many are still waiting for,” she stated.

Oliver also read during the event a message from a nephew of Aurora Picornell, after the exhumation work allowed the remains of family members to be located. In his writing, the relative pointed out that, after recovering the remains, it was necessary to find a place where these people could rest. “Now this refuge exists,” assured the son of Libertad Picornell, who also thanked “infinitely” the work of “all the actors who have made it possible.” The new columbarium thus provides a place of rest and memory for the remains recovered in the different exhumation projects of repressed people who disappeared during the Civil War and the dictatorship in Mallorca.