Spanish excavation fails to find poet Lorca's lost bones

Dec 18, 2009, 12:10 GMT

Granada, Spain - Spanish experts looking for the lost bones of acclaimed poet Federico Garcia Lorca have failed to find the alleged mass grave which was believed to contain them, a regional justice official said Friday.

The two-month excavation had shown that 'there were never any burials in this area,' Begona Alvarez said.

The author of Gypsy Ballads was shot dead by supporters of right- wing General Francisco Franco at age 38 at the start of Spain's 1936- 39 civil war.

Most historians agree he was executed in Alfacar near Granada, and many had also thought he had been buried there with several other people.

The authorities planted a park on the site to protect it.

Some historians insisted on opening the site to confirm the truth about Lorca's death and to give Spain's most beloved modern poet a dignified burial.

Lorca's descendants opposed the move, arguing that would single the poet out from among anonymous war victims.

The lack of results from the excavation has fuelled alternative theories about Lorca's burial.

One of them claims that Franco was worried about international protests against the execution of the poet, and ordered the mass grave to be emptied.

Alvarez, however, said 'there was never anything' buried at the site.