The islands of San Simón and San Antonio, located in the Vigo estuary, were a space used by the rebels against the Second Republic as a penal during the Spanish War and the first years of the Franco dictatorship.
From October 1936, the island of San Simón became a penitentiary colony in which the rebels imprisoned republican prisoners first arrived from the province of Pontevedra and from all of Galicia, and later from other places in Spanish geography, especially from Asturias.
The prison, where the prisoners were piling up, was open between October 1936 and March 15, 1943. More than 5,600 people were imprisoned there.
Since February 1939, and until the prison was dismantled at the beginning of 1943, the most dire stage of this space was experienced, with the massive arrival of prisoners of very advanced ages from all over the Spanish geography. Its walls include more than 517 deaths, in addition to those caused by 'walks' and shootings. It was the women of Sada, whom they nicknamed, “the madrinas,” who provided essential care and help for the prisoners’ survival.
The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, has been accompanied by Commissioner Carmina Gustrán; the government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco; the mayor of Redonda, Digna Rivas, and the deputy delegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada
Pedro Blanco expressly acknowledged the work of the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, the mayor and the memorialist associations, “which with constancy and sensitivity made it possible for San Simón to be a living space of memory and dignity.”