Asturias declares three sites of democratic memory in Oviedo, Mieres, and Gijón

The Governing Council of the Principality of Asturias has declared the mass grave of the El Salvador municipal cemetery in Oviedo; Pozu Fortuna in Mieres; and the mass grave of the Ceares municipal cemetery, “El Sucu,” in Gijón, as sites of democratic memory of Asturias. The three agreements, dated October 13, 2026, and signed by Councilor Ovidio Zapico González, are published in the Official Gazette of the Principality of Asturias (BOPA) no. 205, of October 22, 2026, section I, with references 2026-08537, 2026-08535, and 2026-08539.

The declaration is based on Law 1/2019, of March 1, for the recovery of democratic memory in the Principality of Asturias, whose Article 30 reserves the initiative to memorialist entities—and to the Institute of Democratic Memory of the Principality of Asturias—and requires prior consultation with the Council of Democratic Memory; Article 31 assigns the initiation of the procedure to the competent councilor and its completion to the Governing Council. Sectoral competence corresponds to the Department of Territorial Planning, Urbanism, Housing, and Citizens’ Rights, which exercises it through the General Directorate of Democratic Memory, in accordance with Decree 22/2023, of July 31, and Decree 75/2023, of August 18.

The three files followed an identical processing path: a favorable report from the Technical Commission on February 10, 2026, incorporated into the session of the Council of Democratic Memory on April 8, 2026; an initiation resolution on July 22, 2026, published in BOPA no. 147 on July 31, with individualized notification to each city council and a twenty-day public information period. In all three cases, once the deadline expired, there is no record that any suggestion, observation, or allegation was formalized.

Three files, three initiatives

• El Salvador (Oviedo): request from the Asturias Memorialist Association submitted on July 2, 2024, to the General Directorate of Democratic Memory.
• Pozu Fortuna (Mieres): request from the Friends of Mieres Association, with the support of entities, associations, and residents of the council, submitted on October 9, 2025.
• Ceares “El Sucu” (Gijón): proposal from the General Director of Democratic Memory, through the Institute of Democratic Memory of the Principality of Asturias, formulated on February 10, 2026.

The declared spaces

The mass grave of the El Salvador municipal cemetery is located in the place of Aldea Los Arenales, CP 33195 (coordinates 43º20’45.3”N 5º49’53.8”W), and was used, according to the agreement, between October 1937 and October 1952 as a site for the disappearance and concealment of victims of Francoist repression.

The Pozu Fortuna is located in Puente Villandio, parish of Turón, CP 33610, and includes the area from the shaft of the old mining well (43º12’48.8”N 5º41’39.5”W) to the AS 337 road and the riverbed of the Turón river. The file establishes its use as a site of disappearance and concealment between 1937 and 1940.

The Ceares mass grave, «El Sucu», is located on the road to the Cemetery, A7, Gijón-Este, CP 33209 (43º31’27.4”N 5º39’32.2”W), and the declaration incorporates its dignified surroundings: the wall of the executed, the slabs and the obelisk of 1960, and the monument «1,934 NAMES». It was a site of second burial, execution, and disappearance between late October 1937 and 1951.

What the declaration implies

Each agreement contains four mandates: to declare the space with its literal description and coordinates, to register it in the Catalogue of Places of Democratic Memory of Asturias, to publish the agreement in the BOPA, and to notify the Department competent in cultural matters of the registration. The procedure had been opened with the preventive annotation of the asset in that same catalogue.

The three texts share the same classification: enclaves directly linked to historical events that make them «one of the most representative places of the repressive violence exercised in Asturias» during the Spanish War and the subsequent Francoist repression, and today spaces of remembrance, dignification, and recognition of the victims.

The decision comes fifteen days after the initial resolution and without any registered neighborhood or municipal opposition in any of the three files, clearing the way for the three enclaves to be formally incorporated into the regional catalogue.

The official recognition of these three spaces closes an administrative cycle opened between 2024 and 2026 and places three scenes of Francoist repression in Asturias under public guardianship. For the councils of Oviedo, Mieres, and Gijón, it means having a legal instrument of protection and explicit institutional support for the tasks of memory, dissemination, and transmission of democratic values that the agreements identify as the purpose of the declaration.

Source: Official Gazette of the Principality of Asturias, no. 205 of October 22, 2026, section I (Other Provisions) (official reference: 2026-08537, 2026-08535 and 2026-08539).