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Franco's grave off limits to visitors for renovations
Feb 12, 2010, 11:52 GMT
Madrid - The grave of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is off limits to visitors for the foreseeable future due to renovation work, media reports announced Friday.
Visitors will only be able to access an anteroom of a church built into the side of a mountain where the grave of the 'generalisimo' is sited. No length of time for the renovation work was given.
The region around Franco's mausoleum has been hard hit by frost and humidity recently.
Recent visitors have reported buckets set out in the mausoleum to gather water dripping from the ceiling. A stone crucifix atop the mausoleum had recently been placed off limits and stone fragments had broken off a statue at the cross' base.
The remains of Franco, who ruled from 1939 to 1975, are interred in an underground basilica excavated by political prisoners during his rule. Thousands of people who died in the country's 1936-39 Civil War are also buried there.
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