Cuelgamuros Valley

Monumental complex built between 1940 and 1958 to commemorate the military victory of dictator Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War. It was transformed in 2022 into a memorial site for all the victims of the conflict and consists of an immense 150-metre-high stone cross, a basilica and an abbey.

Next to the imposing cross, the hallmark of this place originally known as the Valley of the Fallen, stands the Basilica of the Holy Cross. The peculiarity of this underground temple is that it is excavated inside the rock. Its structure consists of a transept covered with a large dome decorated with mosaics and a crypt. There is the main altar, on which stands a crucified Christ by the sculptor Julio Beovide and polychromed by Ignacio Zuloaga. Since 1958, the abbey has been a place of coexistence for a community of Benedictine monks. The monastery is accessed through the centre of the building and has an unusual cloister:  Rectangular and open to be able to contemplate the large cross.Valle de Cuelgamuros is found to the northeast of the Region of Madrid, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in a vast natural space of 1,365 hectares, constituting a valuable ecological and biological reserve at the heart of the Sierra de Guadarrama.