Logbook · 4 places

Opening of the Bustarviejo penal camp

Bustarviejo, Sierra Norte, Madrid

1 Villages · 1 Monuments · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones

Spain › Community of Madrid › Sierra Norte › Bustarviejo › Opening of the Bustarviejo penal camp

Opening of the Bustarviejo penal camp

Historical milestone · Bustarviejo, Sierra Norte, Madrid

The Bustarviejo penal detachment, known locally as Los Barracones, was a Francoist forced-labour camp 1.5 kilometres from the village, on the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama. The camp opened on 9 November 1944, operating until 1952, and at its outset held as many as 2,000 prisoners. An average of about a hundred political prisoners, and to a lesser extent common criminals, built the La Gargüera viaduct here, two tunnels and the station, as part of the works for the direct Madrid-Burgos railway. The contractor Hermanos Nicolás Gómez benefited from the system of sentence remission through labour, under conditions of semi-slavery. Its barracks are the only Francoist penal detachment still standing in Spain, and it was recognized as a Lugar de Memoria Democrática (site of democratic memory) in 2026.

1944-1952

Photo: Rodelar (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What to see and do in Bustarviejo