The Francoist prison of Formentera (Balearic Islands), 1940-1943. A historical and archaeological study in progress

Abstract

In 1940, a prison began to be built near the port of La Savina, on the island of Formentera (Balearic Islands). Although this prison was dismantled in 1943, there were remains of sufficient importance to be declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2018. During the barely thirty months that it was in operation, it contained a maximum of one thousand four hundred people and, in total, they were transferred there almost two thousand retaliated by the administration of justice of the Franco regime. Fifty-eight of them died from lack of adequate medical care and starvation and were buried in the Sant Francesc cemetery. This article exposes the documentary research on the prison, the exhumation process of its mortal victims and the project of its archaeological study. All of this is in process in 2024.