It's a very strange legend which is transmitted in the region. Its setting is the retirement, the influx of Spanish republicans into the department, fleeing Franco's dictatorial regime. We are in 1939, in La Vajol, a small village on the northern slope of the Albères, in Spain. Here is the Republican treasure.
The Republicans' treasury
The legend begins on February 27 exactly. That day seven trucks loaded with gold bars set off for the nearest port in order to send it to Mexico and France. This gold was a residue of the Spanish bank that the Republicans had succeeded in extracting from the coffers of the central bank and that they wanted, of course, to secure in the shelter of the regime which was being put in place. However, one of these trucks never arrived at its destination.
Some Catalans claim that they saw him near Las Illas (South of Maureillas, in the Albères), where he would have left part of the cargo. Another source says that the truck went to Argelès where the two conveyors would have buried their treasure while waiting for better days. Sometimes we hear slightly different versions, but the action is almost always located near Argelès or in the Albères.
What is it really? Difficult to know without following the trail of these trucks in a real investigation. It seems probable that seven trucks really left La Vajol that day, the date is difficult to invent because it is so precise. But their content remains pure guesswork.
Among the leads to be avoided, we can easily put the one which consists in believing that the Spaniards could, without anyone noticing it, bury anything on the beaches of Argelès: At that time a retention camp was parked these same Republicans on the beach, and we can easily imagine that this beach has been largely supervised, and has been for quite some time.
Like all legends, this must have an element of truth, and all the more so because it takes place in a nearby place and in a recent era. But only a few people should know what really happened on that day in 1939, in La Vajol.
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