The work at the second burial site in the Campillos cemetery has located remains of 22 people, six of whom have already been exhumed. The project totals 119 victims recovered since its inception.
The second mass grave in the Campillos cemetery has begun to unveil the extent of repression in the municipality during the Civil War. The initial work has located remains of 22 people, of which six have already been exhumed; the other 16 will remain protected underground until a new phase planned for 2027.
With these results, the second campaign in the Campillos graves concludes. The bulk of the work focused on completing the first grave, where 40 bodies were recovered. Added to the 73 exhumed during 2025 and the six extracted now, there are already 119 victims recovered since the project began.
The first grave was closed with 113 bodies. The budget of 40,000 euros for this second intervention allowed progress on the parallel burial and the first checks to be made. What began with six identified bodies grew to reveal another 16.
“As we have progressed, the number has increased,” explains María José Berlanga, professor in the Department of Historical Sciences at the University of Málaga and project coordinator.
These latest remains will not be extracted for now. The team will leave them covered and protected so that the cemetery can continue to operate normally until the renewal of the agreement and the return of the researchers.
The first differences between the two burials have already emerged. In the second grave, the use of lime has been detected, something not documented in the first, related to hygiene and odour reduction. Signs of female presence have also been found: items associated with women have appeared, a fact that will need to be confirmed with anthropological study.
Of the 46 bodies exhumed in this second phase (40 in the first grave and six in the second), 40 correspond to men and four to women; in two other cases, the sex has yet to be determined.
The progress allows for a more defined timeline. Berlanga believes that, based on the results and the extent of the second grave, there is a “high probability” that the work will conclude in 2027, provided the project is renewed by the Junta de Andalucía and the University of Málaga.
“There is a high probability that we can finish here in Campillos in 2027,” the coordinator states.
Alongside Berlanga, the coordination is handled by historian Encarnación Barranquero. This week, the mayor, Daniel Gómez, and the councillor for Historical Memory, Tamara Garnica, have continued the work. Students and volunteers from UMA, Complutense University of Madrid, and University of Granada have participated in the excavation.
For the mayor, the number of victims recovered reflects the magnitude of the repression suffered in the municipality. Gómez argues that the investigation will, upon conclusion, provide more information about what happened and advance the restoration of dignity for the people buried in these graves.
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