Spain Evicts Francisco Franco's Heirs From Late Dictator's Summer Palace

It has been more than eight decades since Spain's fascist dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco, took possession of the Pazo de Meirás during the civil war that brought him to power.

Since then, the palace in the northwest region of Galicia has served as an opulent summer retreat — first for the dictator himself, then for his family after Franco's death roughly 45 years ago.

Not anymore.

On Thursday, the Spanish government formally seized the palace from Franco's heirs in a simple ceremony that capped a hard-fought legal struggle to expropriate the property.

The moment was a symbolic triumph for Spain's left-wing government — which won possession of the palace in a court ruling in September, and has repeatedly pushed to remove or reclaim other memorials that glorify the dictator's nearly four-decade reign.