Galicia Asks Franco Family to Open House to Public

A row has broken out over a country house donated to the then Spanish dictator Francisco Franco as authorities try to force his daughter to open its doors to the public.

The Pazo de Meiras, an imposing stone imitation castle set in the lush green countryside in the north-western region of Galicia was given to the dictator by his own regime in 1939.

General Franco used it for his summer holidays, when he would return to his native Galicia. After his death it passed into the hands of his daughter, Carmen, who became the Duchess of Franco.

Authorities in Galicia now want to make it a listed building, thereby forcing the owners to take proper care of it and open it to the public for one day a month.

"This cannot be done until inspectors have been to the house to do a study and determine its worth and catalog the items in it," a spokeswoman for the regional government said yesterday.

"Our inspectors arranged to see the family there over Easter but the family canceled the meeting at the last moment," she said. "We hope they will allow the inspectors in over the summer."

The family face being fined if they fail to let the inspectors in.

The 19th-century castle was given to Franco by authorities in the province La Coruña in 1939, the year in which he won the Spanish civil war that had started with a rising of rightwing generals.

The building and its six hectares of land were deemed to be "a gift from the people of La Coruña" to the dictator who would go on to rule Spain for the next 36 years.

The newspaper El País reported yesterday that local families still resented the way in which the land was given to the Franco family. "Many families were forced to sell their land - or even give it away - to double the size of the estate," it said.