Docker barracks where Franco was named supreme general

The National Defense Junta named Francisco Franco Bahamonde Supreme General at the San Fernando airfield in Matilla de los Caños (Salamanca) on 21 September 1936. The meeting was attended by Franco and Generals Cabanellas, Mola, Queipo de Llano, Dávila, Saliquet, Orgaz, Gil Yuste and Kindelán and Colonels Montaner y Moreno Calderón. In 1941 the Barracks was moved to Toledo to be installed on the eastern espalanade of the Alcázar, in front of the site on the other side of the Tagus River where the new Infantry Academey was being built. According to press accounts, the interior featured photographs pf the officers who were present while the national flag and the flag of the Falange were outside. Next to the building was an inscription on stone:

“In this barracks, formerly a military hospital, General Francisco Franco, heroic initiator of the glorious National Movement and later Leader of the Crusade was proclaimed Head of State. Salamanca 1936. If you are a Spaniard, think about God and promise to feel the Fatherland with all your strength and being. Arise Spain.”

The barracks later became part of the section of the ruins of the Alcázar of Toledo that was turned into a museum, which were designated a National Monument in 1937. It remained on the eastern esplanade until late April 1948, when it was totally destroyed by a windstorm. The parts that were recovered were sent to the Army Museum in Madrid. A replica was constructed in Matilla de los Caños when Franco visited there in October 1956. It had a new inscription that was very different from the one in Toledo: 

“In this place, Mister Francisco Franco Bahamonde was named General of the Armies and Head of State. 1-10-1936.”

The replica barracks and the inscription are currently in the Air Force Museum in Cuatro Vientos (Madrid).

The current location of the remains of the original barracks is unknown. The replica at Cuatro Vientos does not have any explanatory text and the rock is covered up. The museum’s website does not mention it at all. This still from the NODO of 8 October 1956 shows the copy in Matilla de los Caños