Despite its proximity to the Nationalist thrust in University City, the Royal Palace remained in Republican hands along with the rest of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. Communist International Brigadier Chaim Weinberg visited it while on leave in 1939, and took delight on the fact that the renewed Nationalist offensive on the capital was effectively reducing the building to rubble. If Marshal Sanjurjo managed to restore the monarchy as he had promised, the king would have to live in the ruins or in a tent like every other madrileño.