The Forgotten Site ofMemory: The Pantheon of Illustrions Men in Madrid

Abstract

The history of the Pantheon of Illustrious Men in Madrid provides a win-dow on to the cultural politics of nationalism in 19th and early 20th century Spain. The National Pantheon was an essential element in the Progressive project to créate a national collective memory that embodied liberal de-mocratic valúes. But the National Pantheon inaugurated in 1869 in San Francisco el Grande quickly fell victim to the opposition of conservative, Catholic and local interests. At Liberal insistence, a Pantheon of Illustrious Men was eventually included as part of the reconstruction of the Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha in the 1890s. But under the tutelage of the monarchy, the new Pantheon was restricted to a handful of generáis and civilian po-liticians who had died in service to the Patria. As a symbolic reflection of the continuing power of the monarchy, the army, and the church in Spa-nish society, the Pantheon of Atocha both subverted and inverted the liberal democratic goals of its original supporters.