A Masonic museum will be created in Spain in a temple confiscated under Franco.
The creation of a Masonic museum in a historical temple, which is being restored with state support, was discussed in the Spanish city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
An important meeting took place in the Spanish city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, the mayor of the city, José Manuel Bermúdez, and Jesús Soriano, a representative of the Masonic organization in Spain, discussed the creation of the Tenerife Masonic Museum.
The museum is planned to be located in the Masonic Temple of Santa Cruz, which is currently being restored. The restoration was financed by the Ministry of Culture, which allocated 3 million euros for this purpose.
Minister Torres emphasized that the museum should become a place where people can learn the true history of Freemasonry, which played an important role in the intellectual development of Spain, but was persecuted during the Franco dictatorship. The meeting agreed on further steps to create the museum.
The minister also announced that he had appealed to the Salamanca Archive to return documents and other valuables that were seized from the Masonic Temple during the dictatorship and are stored there. He plans to meet personally with the head of the Archive to speed up this process.
According to Torres, the ministry wants cultural values to be preserved where they originally were.
The Masonic Temple of the Añaza Lodge, built in the early 20th century, is considered the largest Masonic temple in Spain, built before the 1936 coup.
During Franco's rule, Freemasons were considered enemies because of their progressive views, and many of their temples were destroyed. Fortunately, the temple in Santa Cruz de Tenerife survived, and its restoration is almost complete.