But 30 years ago, one particular hórreo in the small village of Xeoane had its cross removed. (See photo above.) This small storehouse​—just 108 square feet [10 sq m]—​served as the first secret meeting place of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Galicia. As many as 23 Witnesses would crowd into this tiny space, arriving and departing under cover of darkness to avoid being arrested during Franco’s dictatorship.

A regional newspaper, La Voz de Galicia, said:

“Just as the early Christians met together in the Roman catacombs to hold their ceremonies, forbidden by the authorities, so the first Jehovah’s Witnesses of Galicia, back in the ’50’s, used an hórreo. . . .