A Coruña City Council moves to reclaim Casa Cornide from Franco family

The A Coruña City Council is set to vote next week on an initiative to annul municipal agreements from 1962 that facilitated the transfer of the Casa Cornide estate to the family of former dictator Francisco Franco.

Mayor Inés Rey has characterized the original auction as “fictitious” and “illegitimate.” The council aims to return the 18th-century protected building, located in the Old City, to municipal heritage. This move follows a similar process used to recover the Pazo de Meirás.

The legal challenge argues that the acquisition was conducted in “bad faith” and bypassed a 1931 law from the Second Republic designed to prevent the uncontrolled alienation of patrimonial assets. Historical records show that after the city approved agreements to acquire the building for a conservatory, it was auctioned in 1962. It was purchased by Pedro Barrié de la Maza, the Count of Fenosa, who sold it four days later to Carmen Polo, the wife of Francisco Franco.