Key Trends in the Memorial Urban Toponymy of Francoist Spain in the 20th – 21st Centuries

Abstract

The paper studies urban place names of the era of the Spanish Civil War (from 1936 to 1939) and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (from 1939 to 1975) in the context of the historical memory in contemporary Spain. The material included academic articles on historical memory, publications in the mass media, pieces of legislation, and data from the National Statistics Institute (Spain). Turning to toponyms allows us to provide insights into the problem of historical memory in Spain after the end of the dictatorship in 1975. The 1977 Amnesty Law (Ley de Amnistía de 1977) stipulated the oblivion of the events of the Franco period so as not to provoke conflict in society. In the late 20th century, the history of the Civil War and Francoist dictatorship needed to be re-examined. The research demonstrates that the current legal framework for memory in Spain is based on the Historical Memory Law (Ley de memoria histórica), adopted in 2007. The paper found that the number of urban toponyms containing symbols of the period under study, such as the names of participants in and events of the Civil War and Francoist dictatorship, has decreased significantly in recent years. However, changes in Francoist toponyms are inevitably accompanied by discussions and polemics at the level of local legislatures as well as public commemorative organizations, which are often covered in the media. Thus, the process of renaming continues to be a topical problem for Spain.