Madrid, Spain – Spain unveiled a towering monument Sunday to those killed three years ago in the bombings that ripped apart rush-hour commuter trains – a glass oval containing messages of condolence written in the aftermath of Europe’s worst Islamic terrorist attack.
King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, senior government officials and an invitation-only crowd of several hundred people observed three minutes of silence at a solemn anniversary ceremony in memory of the 191 people killed and more than 1,800 wounded in the attacks of March 11, 2004.
Under glorious sunshine, a lone cellist played the mournful strains of “Song of the Birds” by Pablo Casals, a composition meant to be a call for peace. There were no speeches.
Some people wiped away tears at the ceremony outside Atocha rail station, one of four targets in the string of 10 backpack bombs that struck morning rush-hour commuter trains.
Accompanied by guards wearing old-style plumed helmets, the king placed a laurel wreath at the foot of the monument: a 35-foot-tall glass cylinder with a transparent inner membrane bearing messages of condolence that Spaniards and other people left at Atocha after the attacks – on notes left at makeshift memorials of flowers and candles, or on a computer terminal set up for them to record their thoughts.
The messages, in Spanish and other languages, are visible only from an underground viewing chamber beneath the hollow, slightly oval-shaped monument.
“We are still here and we do not forget. Together forever,” one message in Spanish reads. Another, in English, says, “Words are not enough.”
