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The Government of Spain will declare Places of Democratic Memory the criminal detachments that built the direct train from Madrid to Burgos

29/05/2025

Lozoyuela, Madrid, May 29, 2025 Between 1941 and 1955, around 6,000 Republican prisoners had redeemed their sentences in the construction of the Madrid-Burgos railway line, working in conditions of semi-slavery. For the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, “these spaces, and what happened here, are of singular historical relevance and must have an impact on collective memory.”

The Government of Spain will declare the criminal detachments that built the direct train from Madrid to Burgos during the dictatorship a Place of Democratic Memory. This has been announced today, in Lozoyuela (Madrid), the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, in an act in which tribute has been paid to the republican prisoners who worked in conditions of semi-slavery in this road infrastructure.

Between 1941 and 1955, around 6,000 prisoners had redeemed their sentences in the construction of this railway line. “What happened here is of singular historical relevance and must have an impact on collective memory,” said the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, who was accompanied by the government delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martín, by the families of the victims, and by representatives of the memory associations.

The direct train to Burgos, a state project conceived in the twenties of the last century, was one of the many projects throughout the country that used penalized labor during the Franco regime. Eleven detachments were built, in this case, with forced labor and “surrounded by misery, hunger and bedbugs”, the esplanades, tunnels, viaducts, stations, walkways, freight docks and connecting roads of this road, under the system of Redemption of Penalties for Labor of the Patronato de la Merced.

Many of these workers had been arrested and sentenced by war councils to death penalties for adherence to rebellion, later commuted to 30 years and 1 day of imprisonment, or to lesser penalties if the crime was aiding the rebellion.

Many women, together with their sons and daughters, moved to these detachments in order to be close to their husbands.

The Secretary of State thanked the memory associations, the families, the Young Sierra Orchestra of Madrid, and the students of the IES La Cabrera for their presence, and highlighted the will of the Government of Spain to continue bringing to light events such as those that took place in Lozoyuela. In this regard, he stressed the importance of the declaration as Places of Memory of these detachments, whose opening of the file has been published today in the BOE.