The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, visited today the restoration works of the Masonic Temple of the Lodge of Añaza, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, works financed by the Government of Spain. Torres has highlighted the historical relevance of the property, “for its meaning in the defense of democratic values.” The property was seized and looted by the rebels in the early days of the 1936 Coup d’Etat.

Among its walls, in addition to the ceremonies of the Lodge, free and secular classes were taught for adults, according to the most advanced pedagogical theses of the time, especially, of the Second Republic. In addition, it housed the impression of a newspaper that disseminated the values of democracy and progress.

However, once the uprising took place, all the goods and archives of the Lodge were seized and the temple became a place to promote the persecution of Freemasonry. “In another example of the fake news of the dictatorship, in the temple there were guided tours in which it was said that the Masons made sacrifices of children and witchcraft. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Ángel Víctor Torres.

Minister Torres, accompanied by the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, wanted to emphasize that the Government of Spain will continue to show an “absolute commitment to the victims” and that it will continue with the task of “restoring the memory of those who gave their lives for the defense of the constitutional order and for the values that define this country as democracy.”