The Valley of the Fallen is a Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, erected at Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid. The memorial is located almost 10km from the Escorial Monastery.
Dictator Francisco Franco ordered its construction in 1940 and it was inaugurated in 1958, becoming a Spanish National Heritage in 1959. It served as the burial place of Franco from his death in November 1975 until his exhumation on 24 October 2019.
The complex is composed of the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen, an inn to attend to tourism, and a basilica, all dominated by a 150-meter monumental cross.
