Paper short abstract:

The prison of Carabanchel was built after the end of the Spanish Civil War, by political prisoners, between 1940 and 1944. At the time, it was the largest prison in Europe. It was also one of the last examples of the panopticon design, which was very much in vogue during the late 19th century in Europe and America. Until the law of general amnesty of 1977, which put an end to political imprisonment two years after General Franco’s death, Carabanchel stood as the most powerful symbol of political oppression and resistance in Spain. The premises were vacated in 1998 and the prisoners (by then common criminals and nationalist terrorists) were transferred to other, more modern centres. After years of abandonment and under much controversy, the structure was eventually demolished in 2008.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we will examine the biography of the prison, including not just its birth, life and death, but also its afterlife. The long agony of the prison—an entire decade—allowed for the emergence of diverse actors who used and misused, claimed and interacted with the place in different (often conflicting) ways. The relationship was not just between people and the prison as a symbol: the raw materiality of the derelict building played a prominent role in the years after its abandonment.

We will look at the history of Carabanchel prison considering three phases: the Francoist period (1940-1977); the period of common criminals (1977-1998); and the period of abandonment, demolition and afterlife (1998 to present). Each of these phases is marked by a particular relationship with politics and a different symbolization of the place in the collective imagination of the neighbours living around it and the Spaniards in general. During the first period Carabanchel is regarded as a pure political symbol of oppression and resistance to dictatorship; the second witnesses its conversion into a place of abjection, with AIDS, violence and drugs causing havoc among the common criminals that crowded Carabanchel; finally, the third period is the return of the political: the phase of marginality was glossed over and the neighbours struggled to transform the prison into a memorial to the fight for democracy during the late Francoism (1960s and 1970s).