A team of around 40 Spanish Basque chocolatiers recreated Pablo Picasso's masterpiece Guernica to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the town's bombing that inspired the cubist painter's famous artwork.

The 7.70 meters by 3.50 meters life-size replica is being exhibited in Guernica, the town in the Basque country that on April 26, 1937, was bombed by Nazi Germany's planes.

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The attack, in support of General Francisco Franco at the height of the Spanish Civil War, happened during market day and was timed to maximize civilian casualties.

The harrowing painting, created by Picasso in only three weeks during 1937, shows the suffering of the people and animals in Guernica, represented by figures of women escaping and crying, slain soldiers, a fleeing chicken, a bull and a horse.

It is considered one of the most powerful anti-war paintings in history. Today, the original hangs on the walls of Madrid's Reina Sofia art gallery.

_{Cover image: Ander Gillenea/AFP}