The Long Shadow of the Pines: Vegetation in the Birth, Destruction and Reconstruction of Madrid’s University City (1927–1956)

At the intersection of environmental histories of war, fascism and urban parks, this article analyses the transformation of the political meaning attached to the green spaces of Madrid’s University City. Conceived in the late 1920s as a ‘university park’ inspired by North American academic campuses, the ‘Ciudad Universitaria’ was heavily damaged during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The subsequent campus’ reconstruction and reforestation project aimed to transform the battlefield into a war memorial made of trees. By the 1950s, this discourse had shifted to a more technocratic vision of trees and their role in monumentalising physical access to the Spanish capital. The project of the ‘university park’ was abandoned when the campus’ vacant areas began to be developed during the 1960s. By using trees and other vegetation to articulate a narration of the campus’ transformation over forty years, we emphasise the potential of environmental history to contribute to political histories of war and fascism. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .