The 492-foot cross at Spain's Valle de los Caidos – Valley of the Fallen – will remain standing despite the Spanish government’s planned “resignification” of the site, according to the Spanish bishops' conference. The announcement follows controversy over and demonstrations against the government project and the Spanish Church's handling of the matter.
The Valley of the Fallen, located about 30 miles from Madrid, is a huge complex that took more than a decade to build before being inaugurated in 1959 as a memorial to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It consists of a basilica situated underground in an excavated space in the mountain, a monumental cross – the tallest cross in the world – alongside a Benedictine monastery and school.
