Valley of Cuelgamuros, Monumental complex of basilica, abbey and cross in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Community of Madrid, Spain
The Valley of Cuelgamuros is a monumental complex in the Sierra de Guadarrama made up of an underground basilica, a Benedictine abbey and a 150-metre stone cross with 24-metre arms, set on the Risco de la Nava at about 1,400 metres. A monumental stairway leads to the entrance, whose 10-metre bronze door by Fernando Cruz Solís shows the fifteen mysteries of the rosary and the twelve apostles.
Franco ordered the monument in 1940 to mark the Civil War victory; work ran from 1942 to its inauguration on 1 April 1959, directed by architects Pedro Muguruza and Diego Méndez. Around 20,000 Republican political prisoners were sentenced to forced labour on the site. Franco, buried in the basilica from 1975, was exhumed on 24 October 2019; José Antonio Primo de Rivera was exhumed on 24 April 2023.
A Benedictine monastery has occupied the site since 29 May 1958, and Pope John XXIII raised the underground church to the rank of basilica on 7 April 1960. The name Cuelgamuros comes from the old estate name Pinar de Cuelga Moros, recorded as Cuelgamuros in 1875. Visitors pass the bronze entrance door, 10 m high, carved in 1956 by Fernando Cruz Solís with the fifteen mysteries of the rosary and the twelve apostles below.
Access is only via the M-527 road, which winds up from San Lorenzo de El Escorial; the turn-off is about 9.5 km north of the monastery. The fenced estate covers 1,365 hectares between 985 and 1,758 m, so expect mountain weather and a steep final climb to the cross.
The underground basilica was carved directly from the solid granite rock and exceeds in size many known European church buildings. The crypt holds the remains of more than 33,000 war casualties from both sides of the civil war.
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