The municipality of Inca on Mallorca installed memorial stones for Andreu París Martorell and Bernat Mateu Ferrer on 1 November 2026. The two trade unionists and Republicans were murdered by Francoist forces in March 1937; their remains have never been found. Several dozen relatives, neighbours and city representatives attended the ceremony.
“Thank you for this act in memory of my father and my uncle Andreu,” said Bernat, 93, visibly moved. He is the son of Bernat Mateu Ferrer and nephew of Andreu París Martorell. According to local reports, París, a shoemaker by trade, was one of the leading figures in the labour movement in Inca. Mateu Ferrer was a left-wing Republican and the brother of Antoni Mateu, who served as mayor of Inca during the Second Republic. Both men were arrested in July 1936; the killings took place in March 1937.
The memorial stones are part of the municipal programme Pedres de la memòria, through which Inca gives the names of victims of the dictatorship a visible presence in public spaces. The City Council formally approved the project and made organisational provision for it. The aim of the series is to document locally verified biographies and give those affected, whose graves are often unknown, a named place of remembrance.
The commemoration in Inca is part of a broader municipal effort to come to terms with the consequences of the dictatorship. Priorities include identifying victims, opening up archives and involving families. After the stones were installed, relatives and local initiatives renewed their call for a systematic continuation of the search for evidence of alleged abductions and execution sites. The focus is on records from the period of the 1936 military coup and the subsequent repression.
Details of the memorial ceremony and the biographies of the two men are supported by recent local reports. The legal and organisational framework for the memorial programme is set out in Inca council documents. Unverified details, such as specific grave locations or the precise circumstances of the killings, have deliberately been omitted here. The installation of the two stones gives the acts of violence committed in Inca in 1937 a visible place of remembrance and continues the municipality’s work towards historical clarification.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).