“They don’t have the intellectual courage to face reality.” These are words addressed to Madrid City Hall by José María Uría, director of the Cultural and Documentary Center sector of the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation, one of the most active organizations in the claim of memory and dignity, at number 10 rue Peironcely. . This place in the Entrevías neighborhood became a symbol of atrocities during the civil war thanks to an immortal photograph by Robert Capa.
For years, the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation has been calling for the rehabilitation of the space and its transformation into a museum of memory. Today, the government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida is activating the reform, but for the moment avoids any reference to Capa’s historic work, despite the preliminary draft presented by the foundation and the #SalvaPeironcely10 platform.
The general director of Cultural Heritage at Madrid City Hall, Elena Hernando, told the Culture Commission last Tuesday that “this is a conceptual proposal and not an architectural preliminary project”. For this reason, although “they will take into account what is included in the preliminary project”, they will rehabilitate it without intending to transform it into a museum. At least for now.
“That caught our attention. We have demonstrated with facts the international and historical importance of the place, of the image. This is proven by visits from intellectual leaders such as historians Sheldon Garon and Charlotte Vorms,” explains Uría.
“After all the work around the center, the Town Hall is hesitant to provide the content shown in the photo. They also announce that they will first carry out the reform and then give it content, which makes no sense. Normally, we plan based on future reality,” he adds.
A unanimous reform, a contested historical approach
The Town Hall has confirmed, according to El País, that it will recreate one of the original houses destroyed by rebel bombings. But for the moment it does not give the green light to most of the aspects and approaches of the preliminary draft presented by the entities most active in the environmental field.
This is how sources from the Culture sector detail it in response to this newspaper: “The Town Hall is currently focusing on the rehabilitation and recovery work of the building, which is in a very delicate situation. When carrying out this work, it will be decided which is the most suitable project for the space. From now on, efforts are focused on its recovery and strengthening its structure, so that it has all the security guarantees.
From the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation, despite their anger, they also receive the works “with joy”. And they do not lose hope: “We will continue to work positively with the rigor that experience brings. “Vallecas already has a multi-purpose cultural center like the one proposed here, but it does not have a first-rate museum center.” They have already collected dozens of signatures from intellectuals and university leaders in a manifesto with which they closed the International Meeting of Robert Capa and the Memory of Europe, where they demand the creation of the Robert Capa Center in Peironcely.
