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All Spain Paracuellos de Jarama Paracuellos Massacres Cross at the Madrid Airport

Paracuellos Massacres Cross at the Madrid Airport

The mysterious large white cross visible from the runway is a memorial to a massacre during Spanish Civil War.

Paracuellos de Jarama, Spain

Added By
Christine Williamson
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The huge white cross by the Madrid Airport is the Paracuellos Cementerio de los Martires.   Christine Williamson / Atlas Obscura User
The huge white cross by the Madrid Airport is the Paracuellos Cementerio de los Martires.   Christine Williamson / Atlas Obscura User
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   Contando Estrelas/CC BY-SA 2.0
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   SanchoPanzaXXI/GDFL
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   SanchoPanzaXXI/GDFL
The cross at Madrid airport.   Christine Williamson
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   Contando Estrelas/CC BY-SA 2.0
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   SanchoPanzaXXI/GDFL
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
The cross at Cementerio de Paracuellos.   Mr. Tickle/CC BY 2.5
View during takeoff (terminal 4S)   serpent / Atlas Obscura User
Entrance to Paracuellos’ Cementerio de los Mártires   Mr. Tickle/CC BY 2.5
Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   Contando Estrelas/CC BY-SA 2.0
Monument at Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires   SanchoPanzaXXI/GDFL
Memorial at Paracuellos Cementerio de los Mártires.   SanchoPanzaXXI/GDFL
Aeropuerto de Madrid Barajas Adolfo Suárez.   Christine Williamson / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Anyone that looks out the plane window during arrival or take off at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport will see the huge white cross painted on a hill right beside the runway. It gives some passengers a feeling of unease, as some believe it to be a plane crash memorial. In fact the cross is for victims of a different sort of tragedy.

The Spanish Civil War, fought between General Francisco Franco's Nationalists and left-wing Republicans, lasted from 1936 to 1939. Both sides committed grave atrocities during the war, one of the worst of which became known as the“Paracuellos Massacres.”

In the Battle of Madrid in 1936, the Nationalists attacked civilians with airstrikes from German bombers. At the same time the Republicans (supported by the Russians) incarcerated thousands of political prisoners in Madrid, among them civilians, Catholic priests and soldiers. As the Nationalist troops approached, the Republicans felt pressure to dispose of their enemies. Their solution was mass executions. Starting in the early morning hours of November 7, 1936 prisoners were informed that they would be released from imprisonment in groups. They were brought to the fields near “Paracuellos del Jarama,” where they were shot and buried in mass graves. The executions continued until December 4.

How many Spaniards were killed at the hands of their fellow countrymen is unknown. Numbers vary largely among historians. While some say it was a thousand in total, others say it was about a thousand in the first two days. Most numbers vary between 2,000 and 5,000. The magazine El Alcazar in 1977 put the number at 12,000. In the same year, César Vidal's Matanzas en el Madrid Republicano included a list of 12,000 victim names. An official number will never be known, as most of the bodies cannot be found.

The white cross visible from the runway of Madrid Airport marks the site of the Paracuellos Massacres. What can't be seen from the runway is the Cementerio de los Mártires at the foot of the hill, the Paracuellos Civil War Cemetery. Six hundred crosses mark the graves of the bodies that were discovered, and stand in memory of the many more whose fate is unknown.

Related Tags

Crosses Cemeteries Civil War Execution Mass Graves Airports

Know Before You Go

The cross can be seen at all times from the airport.

If you want to visit the cemetery it is open Wednesdays to Sundays from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.

It can be easily reached from the M-111, where it lays right next to.

Community Contributors

Added By

Christine Williamson

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, CoolCrab, serpent

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • CoolCrab
  • serpent

Published

January 17, 2017

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracuellos_massacres
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Spanish_Republic
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Madrid
  • http://www.outono.net/elentir/2012/04/16/el-cementerio-de-los-martires-de-paracuellos-de-jarama-en-madrid/
  • http://www.abc.es/historia-militar/20130818/abci-paracuellos-jarama-matanzas-terror-201308151732.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Su%C3%A1rez_Madrid%E2%80%93Barajas_Airport
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Su%C3%A1rez_Madrid%E2%80%93Barajas_Airport
Paracuellos Massacres Cross at the Madrid Airport
Paracuellos de Jarama
Paracuellos de Jarama
Spain
40.511827, -3.545453
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