A multidisciplinary team from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and CISPAC has begun an archaeological investigation at Serantes Cemetery in Ferrol to locate and assess the state of preservation of the graves in which at least 197 victims of Francoist violence may be buried. The work, which began on 31 August and will continue until 11 September, is initially focused on a test excavation to establish whether human remains are present and assess the prospects for a future exhumation.
The initiative builds on historical research conducted by the Histagra research group, which is part of CISPAC, under the scientific coordination of Lourenzo Fernández Prieto and Antonio Míguez Macho. The study, carried out by Xurxo Antelo and Lucía Santiago in collaboration with the Ferrol Association for Historical and Democratic Memory and the victims’ families, significantly increased the number of documented individuals.
Previous estimates placed the number of victims at between 170 and 175, while the Nomes e Voces project had recorded 189. A review of new sources and records ultimately raised the figure to at least 197 people buried between 1936 and 1942, most of them during the months following the coup d’état. The expansion of the cemetery, the construction of burial niches and the exhumations undertaken by the families themselves from the 1950s onwards altered some of the burial areas. The investigation now seeks to determine which areas may remain intact, which have been altered and where primary or secondary deposits of human remains might still be found.
The results of the archaeological test excavation, coordinated by José Carlos Sánchez Pardo, a researcher with USC and CISPAC’s AEVUM group, and carried out on site by Tempos Arqueólogos, will determine the next phases of the project. If human remains are located, a forensic anthropological analysis will be initiated under the coordination of Edgard Camarós, a researcher with USC and CISPAC’s GEPN-AAT group. This study will make it possible to identify possible signs of violence and subsequently proceed with genetic identification by comparing the remains with samples provided by the families.
“We are doing this because we keep asking ourselves a question: 90 years ago, they began killing people—but why did they have to kill them? It is a historical, democratic and human rights question.” Lourenzo Fernández Prieto (HISTAGRA-CISPAC)
The work in Serantes forms part of an agreement signed by USC and the Provincial Council of A Coruña, with funding from the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory. The agreement covers historical, archaeological and forensic research into the graves associated with Francoist violence at the cemeteries of Serantes; Beira, in Carral; and Boisaca, in Santiago de Compostela. Given the number of documented victims, Serantes is one of Galicia’s main burial sites connected to Francoist repression and a key place for advancing knowledge, reparation and the recovery of democratic memory.
Main photo: Lentes Diverxentes