Civil War

Seven bodies have been exhumed from a mass grave in Arriate: six men and one woman

The remains show signs of violent deaths, and the local council is now launching a search for relatives in an attempt to identify them through DNA testing

The site within Arriate’s municipal cemetery where the mass grave containing the remains of seven victims of the Civil War was located and exhumed. (SUR)

13/08/2026 a las 08:34h.

The search at the municipal cemetery in Arriate has resulted in the discovery of seven victims.

Archaeological work carried out over recent weeks has led ... to the exhumation of the remains of six men and one woman from the mass grave linked to the repression during the Civil War, a figure that is in line with the estimates made by investigators before the burial site was finally opened.

With the excavation now complete, a phase that may prove even more complex is beginning: the attempt to find out who each of them was.

The discovery of the woman’s remains is one of the key new developments to emerge from the operation. “We thought they were all men, but we were wrong,” explained the mayor of Arriate, Francisco Javier Anet, who noted that the remains show signs consistent with traumatic deaths, albeit with varying degrees of injury.

Preliminary investigations had identified two possible groups of victims of reprisals, one linked to events that took place in late 1936 and the other in the early months of 1937. According to the councillor, the characteristics of the burial suggest that the seven bodies may date from those periods, although further analysis will be required to make progress with their identification.

DNA: the next step

Now that the fieldwork has been completed, the area of the cemetery where the mass grave was located has been restored. The remains will now remain in safekeeping whilst archaeologists and anthropologists continue with the necessary studies and prepare for the genetic analysis phase. The town council will also issue an appeal to any potential relatives of victims of reprisals to provide DNA samples that can be compared with those from the bodies.

At present, there is no specific timeframe for the first identifications to be made. The female victim is of particular interest, as her presence was not clearly indicated in the initial hypotheses. The town council now intends to examine historical records and the testimonies of local residents and descendants in greater depth in an attempt to determine which woman who suffered reprisals might be among the remains.

With the seven bodies now recovered, the council is not aware of any other mass graves in the cemetery. Anet explains that the documentation they had indicated that a burial site containing between five and eight victims was located precisely at this spot.