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Work has begun to exhume Francisco Franco from the tomb in the Valley of the Fallen where the Spanish dictator has lain since his death in 1975 and to transfer his remains to lie alongside those of his wife in a cemetery near Madrid.

Shortly after 10.30am local time (0930 BST) on Thursday, the Spanish government announced the operation to move his body was under way, The Guardian reports.

Twenty-two members of the Franco family have gathered in the basilica, along with Spain’s justice minister, Dolores Delgado, in her role as first notary of the kingdom.

A canopy has been erected to cover the grave and guard against any attempts to film the exhumation. Those present will be checked for electronic devices to make sure there are no images or sound recordings.

If all goes to plan, the 1.5-tonne slab that has covered the tomb will be lifted and the coffin removed and flown by helicopter or taken by road to Mingorrubio-El Pardo municipal cemetery.

Franco’s remains have had pride of place in the basilica, which is 40 miles (64km) north-west of Madrid, since his death.

Although the Valley of the Fallen and its 150-metre (490ft) cross ostensibly commemorate all those killed in the Spanish civil war, for many people it serves only to glorify Franco and his nearly four-decade dictatorship.

The government said his remains needed to be moved as they could no longer “remain in a public mausoleum that exalts his figure”, adding that the removal would “symbolically close the circle of Spanish democracy”.

But after months of appeals and legal arguments, Spain’s supreme court gave permission for the exhumation at the end of September.

The exhumation phase could take between one and three hours, after which the remains will be blessed by the prior, Santiago Cantera, and the coffin carried out of the basilica by family members.

A private family service will be held inside the Franco mausoleum Mingorrubio-El Pardo, where the dictator’s widow, Carmen Polo, was buried after her death in 1988.