The Spanish may have stopped remembering to forget Franco

“We are closing a dark chapter of our history,” prime minister Pedro Sánchez said recently

The Valley of the Fallen near Madrid is a strange place. This mausoleum, basilica and shrine to the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco is an ostentatious edifice, hewn into a rocky mountainside, that stands in contrast to the subtle magnificence of historical and modern Spain.

Last week, Franco’s remains were taken from there and placed alongside those of his wife in a suburban cemetery in Madrid, ending years of arguments over what to do ...