The symbolic value of the Alcázar grew as weeks went by, and the Republicans threw badly needed men, artillery and weapons into the fortress capture (instead of using them to confront Franco's northern advance through western Spain). The press was invited by the Republican government to witness the explosion of the mines and storming of the Alcázar on September 18, when the Prime minister Francisco Largo Caballero himself detonated the mine, but it would not be until September 29 that the press entered the Alcázar, this time by the invitation of the Nationalists, turning the whole thing into a huge propaganda victory for the Nationalists, undermining the Republican morale.