Did you know that there's still a huge sculpture of Franco riding on his horse in Madrid?. Yes!. It's located in Rios Rosas street beside Los Nuevos Ministerios.
Every 20th of November, Franco's followers got together around the Sculpture to conmemorate his death. Their current leader is called Ynestrillas and, to avoid problems they are forbiden to gather around the sculpture. Nowadays I think thay they gather in West Park the 20th of November, but I'm not utterly sure.
What do you think about still being a Franco's sculpture in Madrid?. Do you think that the best thing would be to knock down the sculpture?. A lot of people think that it would be the best thing.
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
Any issues dealing with Franco should be determined by the people. Maybe they should put it in as a referendum vote for the next election for the people of Madrid. If they choose to leave it stand fine, if they ask that it be removed, then remove it.
There's nothing like a nice little vote to determine what's done with something like that.
JP
Posts: 121 | Location: x | Registered: 21 June 2001
I've always thought that people must learn from the past. For example, it seems that Hitler didn't read anything about Napoleon because he did the same thing ... he tried to conquer Rusia in winter as Napoleon tried to do and ... logically ... his troops were defeated.
I don't want to say that the best way to remember the past is to mantain all the statues of Franco or all the monuments he did. Because, if we knock down this statue, why not to knock down "El valle de los ca�dos". Well, maybe it's an out of proportion comparison but ...
Bye!
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
Some years ago Madrid City government decide to remove all Franco statues, but it was decided that three of them will remain, because of their art value, and because History must not be forgotten (I don't know whether there was anybody taking this decission who wanted it repeated). This statue at the Pl. de San Juan de la Cruz-R�os Rosas is the most famous one, but there are two more; where? I don't know. I think one of them is around or in the "Instituto Ramiro de Maeztu". And I don't have any news about the thid one.
Posts: 399 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 05 July 2001
Just one thing. The college Ramiro de Maeztu is near San Juan de la Cruz Square. Maybe the Franco's statue you think that is near Ramiro de Maeztu is just the one that I've said that is located in Rios Rosas. Maybe.
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
I don't think so, Totx. It was quite close. I saw it once, and I always think it was inside the "Instituto", but I can't recall where -I was eight-nine year old then-. I've been there three o four times since then, but I haven't found it. Maybe it has been removed.
Posts: 399 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 05 July 2001
And talking about Franco ... I've just recall a funny thing that can be seen in Logro�o. There is a wine cellar (the building where the wine is processed) called "Bodegas Franco Espa�olas S.A." in the middle of the city.
Well the thing is that there is a narrow street with buildings at both sides of it that ends just against the front side of this wine cellar. If you are located in the further side of this street you can see just a little of the wine cellar building and over the roof of this building you can read just "FRANCO ESPA�OL" because the buildings at both sides of the street don't let you see anything more. As you are aproaching to the building you can read little by little all the name ... "GAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS" .... "BODEGAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS S.A."
I suppose that they did it knowing what they were doing. Nowadays is the third most tipical thing to see (or to do) in Logro�o. The 1st one is to take a look to the most famous horse of the world: The horse of El Espartero (Jer, I don't know if your camera will be able someday to show us the "marvels" that this horse is not able to hide) The 2nd thing is to eat mushrooms in a bar called "El Soriano" in Laurel street and the 3rd one is to see "FRANCO ESPA�OL"
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
I'm not too surprised that there is a statue of Paco in Madrid. There are still some streets which bear the names of his generals/co-horts, i.e., Mola, Yague, in Madrid. I seem to recall that there is another statue of Franco in Guadalajara. I do remember seeing one his statues being torn down in a town just north of Barcelona called Sant Adria de Besos. I stuck around to watch the spectacle and I remember everyone cheered when it hit the ground.
Posts: 1 | Location: Ft Walton Beach, FL | Registered: 05 March 2002
In the Basque Country are changing not only the name of the streets like "El General�simo", "Franco" ... but also the ones related to "Espa�a". For example: "Plaza Espa�a", "Avenida Espa�a", etc
Posts: 191 | Location: madrid | Registered: 10 December 2001
With regards to the name of the streets, Madrid City Council decided long time ago to change street names to the old ones before the Civil War, or sometimes even before that.
So, nowadays you can't find any street in downtown Madrid named after any important Franco supporter, but you can find lots of other less important people who had some suburb streets named after them. One good example is the "barrio" called "Las �guilas". Every street there is named after fascist Army officials.
And with regards to funny things related to this issue, one of the funniest can be found in Calpe (Alicante). There, you may walk the "carrer Jos� Antonio"!!!.
Posts: 399 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 05 July 2001
Thanks max, that is a hoot! Just in case anyone is wondering, "Jos� Antonio" is Jos� Antonio Primo de Rivera, the leader of the "Falange Espa�ola" which was the "political" party of Franco and the only one allowed during his dictatorship
As for street names, I am still waiting for the town hall to change the name of the Plaza Mayor to "Plaza de multimadrid"
Hey totx, funny you should mention that wine cellar. In the Gonzalez Byass (T�o Pepe) "bodegas" (wine cellars) in Jerez de la Frontera (Andaluc�a), they have loads of Jerez (Sherry) Barrels aging that are signed by famouse Spaniards (and some foreigners) and Franco has his John Hancock on one of them. No wonder it is still there, I would be afraid to drink from it too
Totx wrote: "And talking about Franco ... I've just recall a funny thing that can be seen in Logro�o. There is a wine cellar (the building where the wine is processed) called "Bodegas Franco Espa�olas S.A." in the middle of the city. Well the thing is that there is a narrow street with buildings at both sides of it that ends just against the front side of this wine cellar. If you are located in the further side of this street you can see just a little of the wine cellar building and over the roof of this building you can read just "FRANCO ESPA�OL" because the buildings at both sides of the street don't let you see anything more. As you are aproaching to the building you can read little by little all the name ... "GAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS" .... "BODEGAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS S.A."
I suppose that they did it knowing what they were doing. Nowadays is the third most tipical thing to see (or to do) in Logro�o. The 1st one is to take a look to the most famous horse of the world: The horse of El Espartero (Jer, I don't know if your camera will be able someday to show us the "marvels" that this horse is not able to hide) The 2nd thing is to eat mushrooms in a bar called "El Soriano" in Laurel street and the 3rd one is to see "FRANCO ESPA�OL"
The front of Bodegas Franco Espa�olas (French-Spanish)is not located at the end of a narrow street, it is located at the end of a bridge that spans the Ebro River. And while Espartero's horse is famous all over Spain (because the horse has huge cojones or "balls"), it is hardly the most famous horse in the world. In calle Laurel there are some 30 bars, most of them with its own specialty. El Soriano is famous for mushrooms, but so are others on calle Laurel and the Travesia del Laurel. I love Logro�o and I am surprised that anyone would spend much time there looking for "Franco" word plays on the side of bodega, closely inspecting the cojones of Espartero's horse, and finding just one good tapas bar on calle Laurel.
Gerry Dawes
Posts: 97 | Location: Suffern, NY USA | Registered: 23 March 2002
The place to go for Franco worshippers is Santander on the north coast. All the street names are unchanged since Franco's days and another equestrian statue of Franco presides over the main square by the town hall.
The statue was removed a few years ago to build an underground car park. Many thought that it would not be replaced after the two or so years that it took to build and it would be a discrete way of removing the offending item. However, it was replaced and it stands there to this day.
BTW, it hasn't been mentioned, but I presume most people understand that 'Bodegas Franco Espa�olas' translates as 'Franco-Spanish Wineries', i.e. French-Spanish, and has nothing to do with General Franco.
Yes!. It's located in Rios Rosas street beside Los Nuevos Ministerios. 
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because the buildings at both sides of the street don't let you see anything more. As you are aproaching to the building you can read little by little all the name ... "GAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS" .... "BODEGAS FRANCO ESPA�OLAS S.A." 
