page_title: History of Madrid
section_title: Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Madrid / Francoist dictatorship (1939–1975)
caption_attribution_description: Español: Cuartel General del Ejército del Aire de España, Madrid, España.
context_page_description: The documented history of Madrid dates to the 9th century, even though the area has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The development of Madrid as administrative centre began when Philip II set his court there in the 1560s. Madrid has been the country's capital continuously since 1606.
context_section_description: Following the onset of the Francoist dictatorship in the city, the absence of personal and associative freedoms and the heavy-hand repression of people linked to a republican past greatly deprived the city from social mobilization, trade unionism and intellectual life. This added to a climate of general shortage, with ration coupons rampant and a lingering autarchic economy lasting until the mid 1950s.
  With the country ruined after the war, the Falange command had nonetheless high plans for the city and professionals sympathetic to the regime dreamed (based on an organicist conception) about the notion of building a body for the "Spanish Greatness" placing a great emphasis in Madrid, what they thought to be the imperial capital of the New State. In this sense, urban planners sought to highlight and symbolically put in value the façade the city offered to the Manzanares River, the "Imperial Cornice", bringing projects to accompany the Royal Palace such as the finishing of the unfinished cathedral (with the start of works postponed to 1950 and ultimately finished in the late 20th century), a never built "house of the Party" and many others. Nonetheless these delusions of grandeur caught up with reality and the scarcity during the Post-War and most of the projects ended up either filed, unfinished or mutilated, with the single clear success being the Gutiérrez Soto's  Cuartel del Ejército del Aire.
  During the dictatorship, especially after the sixties, the south of Madrid became very industrialized and experienced massive migrations from rural environments into the city. Madrid's south-eastern periphery became an extensive slum settlement, which was the base for an active cultural and political life.
  In the 1948–1954 period the municipality greatly increased in size through the annexation of 13 surrounding municipalities, as its total area went up from 68,42 km² to 607,09 km². The annexed municipalities were Chamartín de la Rosa (5 June 1948), Carabanchel Alto (29 April 1948), Carabanchel Bajo (29 April 1948), Canillas (30 March 1950), Canillejas (30 March 1950), Hortaleza (31 March 1950), Barajas (31 March 1950), Vallecas (22 December 1950), El Pardo (27 March 1951), Vicálvaro (20 October 1951), Fuencarral (20 October 1951) Aravaca (20 October 1951) and Villaverde (31 July 1954).
  The population of the city peaked in 1975 at 3,228,057 inhabitants.
caption: The Neo-Herrerian Cuartel General del Ejército del Aire was among the few successes of the largely failed attempt to model the image of an "Imperial Madrid" by Falangism.
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