Valle de los caidos

This site is easily one of the most controversial in all of spain.  It doesn't look like it in the pictures, but this building is massive.  The cross is 300 meters tall (or 984 feet), and inside the building is a church in the form of a long tunnel, which also measures 300 meters long.  

The view from outside the building is spectacular.  It's located on the top of a mountain overlooking a forest.  We were lucky enough to go on a sunny day.  Once you go inside the building, however, everything changes.  There's a reason why spaniards make this face when you ask if they've ever been here: 

The whole building is made out of granite.  There are no windows.  The light fixtures are candles fit to the top of crosses, that appear to be made out of a sword and lightning bolts.  The building is massive.  Everything about it is massive.  Despite the fact that it is a church, it is not a place you would want to be in after dark.  Especially once you start looking at the decorations.

Once out of the lobby, the church is guarded by two giant statues of angels with swords, and an iron gate.  The first 100 meters or so of the hall is decorated with bright tapestries.  Ok, seems fairly inviting, right?  Until you realize that the tapestries are all depicting the apocalyptic scenes from the bible.  Oh, and behind the tapestries?  There's a mass grave for people who died during the civil war of 1936-39, and the bodies of most of the people who built this monstrosity.  It was constructed by prisoners of war, many of whom died in the process as a result of inhaling granite dust for too long.  

Continuing down the hall, you reach the section that is guarded by 8 giant statues: hoods down, biceps bulging   Scary stuff.  They're supposed to be crying for the fallen, but they really just look like medieval thugs.  

The altar and the actual church part of the building are not as threatening, as long as you don't mind the giant arc-angel statues surrounding the altar, or the fact that in front of the altar is the grave of José Primero de Rivera, the founder of spanish nationalism.  Behind the altar is the grave of Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled spain for 40 years after the civil war.  

Overall, it is not a pretty building, visually or in what it stands for.