Manuel Azana and Montauban

Born in 1880 in Alcalá de Henares, Manuel Azaña lost his parents at a very young age.
During his secondary studies, he was a boarder at the Escorial college. He continued his law studies, acquiring a vast general culture.

While Spain remained neutral during the Great War, he made a name for himself by defending the cause of France and its Allies. From 1923 he rose up against the military dictatorship and joined the Republican camp. In 1931, he played a decisive role in the proclamation of the Second Republic and launched a reform program as head of government and Minister of War. In 1936, after the victory of the Popular Front, he was elected President of the Republic. Faced with the military uprising that triggered the civil war, he embodied republican legitimacy. the advance of the Francoist army forced him to leave Spain on February 4, 1939. After having resigned from the presidency, he lived in exile in France.

In June 1940, the German victory led him to take refuge in Montauban. Ill, hunted down by Franco's agents, he died there on November 3, 1940. He was buried in the Montauban cemetery, 18 rue de l'Égalité.

Every year, in November, the Manuel Azaña association keeps his memory alive by organizing the Manuel Azaña Days and his tomb is still today a place of pilgrimage for a large part of the Spaniards.

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