The Provincial Council allocates one million euros to municipal historical memory

The Provincial Council of Seville has announced one million euros in grants for the municipalities of the province to carry out historical and democratic memory actions during the 2026 fiscal year. The call was approved by resolution no. 7638/2026, of October 15, 2026, from the delegated deputy of the Area of Culture and Citizenship, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Seville (BOP) no. 203, of Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The full text of the guidelines is found in the announcement with reference BOP-SE-2026-203001 and the extract in BOP-SE-2026-203002, with identification number BDNS 935775.

One million euros and three lines of action

The program is processed under a competitive bidding system and has a maximum total amount of 1,000,000.00 euros, charged to two budget applications for the 2026 fiscal year: 700,000 euros charged to application 1208.32707/46200/26p12100 and 300,000 euros to 1208.32707/76200/26p12100. The grants may cover up to 100% of the cost of each action and will be paid in advance upon approval of the granting resolution.

The eligible actions are divided into three lines, which are compatible with one another:

• Line 1. Location and dignification of victims: historical research to locate mass graves and identify victims, prospecting with ground-penetrating radar or test pits, exhumation, anthropological analysis, genetic identification, and reburial, as well as the dignification of the grave sites.
• Line 2. Historical dissemination and heritage conservation: publications, courses, workshops, conferences, and exhibitions, as well as the recovery and dissemination of documentary, oral, audiovisual, or intellectual heritage from the Civil War and the Dictatorship.
• Line 3. Removal or elimination of symbols and elements contrary to democratic memory.

Amounts per action and execution period

The maximum eligible amounts are fixed by type of action. In Line 1, up to 4,000 euros will be funded for historical research, 5,000 euros for the location and delimitation of graves using ground-penetrating radar or test pits, and 2,500 euros for each body exhumed, analyzed, identified, or reburied; the dignification of the space and the construction or repair of columbariums, pantheons, mausoleums, ossuaries, or crypts may reach 100,000 euros in conjunction with the other actions in this line. The maximum amount per beneficiary in this line will be 100,000 euros. Line 2 is limited to 6,000 euros and Line 3 to 3,000 euros.

The execution period spans from July 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027, and the justification must be submitted within a maximum period of three months following the end of the expenditure eligibility period. Personnel costs for own staff, catering and restaurant services, taxis, parking and fuel, as well as literary or artistic creations without a predominantly historical or informative nature, are not considered eligible for subsidies.

Who can apply and how it is evaluated

Beneficiaries may be the city councils of the province of Seville, with the express exception of Seville city, provided they do not fall under the prohibitions of Article 13 of the General Subsidies Law 38/2003, of November 17. The application, electronically signed by the person holding the Mayoralty, must be accompanied by a project for each requested line and, where applicable, the declaration of collaboration from memorialist entities and the certificate from the Municipal Comptroller regarding the existence of credit.

The evaluation combines several criteria:

• Technical adequacy and economic viability of the project: up to 10 points, with a minimum of 5 to be eligible for the aid.
• Collaboration of memorialist entities: 5 points.
• Population criterion: 10 points for municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, 5 points between 5,001 and 20,000, and 2 points above 20,000.
• Own municipal contribution, only in line 1: 10, 20, or 30 points depending on the percentage financed.
• Number of planned exhumations: 2 points for each, up to a maximum of 50.

In the event of insufficient credit, actions in line 1 will take priority, and the remaining credit will be distributed between lines 2 and 3 in proportion to the score obtained. The final resolution must be issued within a maximum period of six months from the end of the application period.

Regulatory framework and background

The guidelines are based on the Democratic Memory Law 20/2022, of October 19, and the Law 2/2017, of March 28, on Historical and Democratic Memory of Andalusia, and are developed under the General Subsidies Ordinance of the Provincial Council of Seville, published in the BOP no. 104, of May 9, 2023. The line is provided for in the Strategic Subsidies Plan of the Culture and Citizenship Area 2025-2028, approved by resolution no. 1208/2025, of March 11, and modified to incorporate it through resolutions no. 3673/2025, of June 9, and no. 5817/2026, of August 20. The resolution is signed by the delegated deputy Casimiro Fernández Linares using the delegation conferred by the Presidency resolution no. 1221/2026, of March 3.

Deadlines and obligations of the city councils

The application submission period is fifteen business days starting from the day following the publication of the summary in the BOP via the National Grants Database; Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are excluded, and late applications will be inadmissible. Projects must obtain the corresponding sectoral authorizations, including that of the Department competent in matters of democratic memory for the location, exhumation, and identification of remains. Actions funded with 3,000 euros or more must incorporate the official logo of the Diputación de Sevilla in all dissemination materials.

The call arrives with the fiscal year’s calendar already advanced and with an execution period that dates back to July 1, 2026, such that city councils must fit their projects into an eighteen-month window. For small municipalities, the population criterion and own financing in line 1 become the decisive factors for accessing the maximum of 100,000 euros per locality, an amount that in many cases exceeds the annual investment capacity in heritage and memory of the province’s city councils.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Seville, no. 203, of October 20, 2026, Local Administration, pages 7 and 31 (official reference: BOP-SE-2026-203001 and BOP-SE-2026-203002).