Spanish authorities are set to exhume the remains of dictator Francisco Franco from the state mausoleum where he was buried in 1975.
The ruling Socialists have long sought to exhume Franco's remains and turn the Valley of the Fallen site near the capital Madrid into a memorial to the 500,000 people who were killed during the 1936-39 civil war he unleashed.
The Franco family disputed the exhumation in courts but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal last month.
Twenty-two members of Franco’s family will attend the exhumation from the monument's central basilica at 10:30 local time on Thursday, the government said in a statement.
He will be buried alongside his wife in the family crypt at the Mingorrubio-El Pardon cemetery, 12km north of Madrid.
"The exhumation and reburial will be done in an intimate manner with his family present," Justice Minister Dolores Delgado said in a statement.
The grandiose Valley of the Fallen mausoleum holds the bodies of 34,000 Spaniards who died during the civil war, including many from the losing Republican side whose bodies were moved there during Franco’s rule without the permission from their families.
Neither media nor the general public will be allowed to watch the proceedings and access to the Valley of the Fallen has been shut for days.
The location of Franco’s tomb continues to fracture opinion in Spain with 43% in favour of the move and 32.5% against, according to a poll published by El Mundo last week.
Spain is facing its fourth election in four years in November and moving Franco’s remains from the state mausoleum had long been a Socialist pledge.
The government of Pedro Sanchez has said Spain should not "continue to glorify" the dictator, whose hillside mausoleum is topped by a 150-metre (500-feet) cross and has attracted both tourists and rightwing sympathizers.
