Belchite, a remnant of the Spanish Civil War
Belchite, a remnant of the Spanish Civil War

Belchite, a remnant of the Spanish Civil War

Belchite, a remnant of the Spanish Civil War

Visit of ruins

Belchite, Spain

We are in September 1937 in the small village of Belchite located about 50 kilometers from Zaragoza. The Spanish Civil War has been raging for a year already and thousands of Spaniards died. By the end of the conflict in April 1939, they will be more than 500,000 deads.

While the village is the site of many battles between nationalists and republicans, Belchite will be conquered and reconquered throughout the Spanish Civil War. On April 1, 1939 while the noise of the bombs stopped, the village is completely destroyed, a victim of the madness of soldiers.

The new dictator, Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde, or simply Franco decided to leave the ruins untouched and rebuild the village few meters away. His goal? Give his people a live monument of the civil war. The latter is also used symbolically this place as irrefutable proof that the Republicans was the cause of this horror.

Today, the site is open to the public and guided tours are possible. The area have also been the scene of shooting various films, such as The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Fisher King, etc.) and Pan's Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro .

Related content

The abandoned St-Matthew's Episcopal Church
Saint-Chrysostôme, Quebec (Canada)

Established in the 1840s to serve the English and Irish settlers, the St-Matthew's Episcopal Church (also known as Edwardstown Anglican Church) is located outside of the St-Chrysostôme village, few kilometers near the US border.

The...

The abandoned hotel lost in the woods

Located in the Northeastern United States, miles away from any village, this old hotel is in poor shape today. But even if a full floor has collapsed, its structure has kept its old world charm. Nevertheless, the slightest gust of wind could be...

The abandoned Blue Bonnets Raceway
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)

Blue Bonnets racetrack saga is not about to end anytime soon. One of the main topic of Montreal 2013 election was the huge eco-friendly residential project that politicians wanted to implant on the former racetrack site. Despite the fact that the...

Inside the church
Farnham, Quebec (Canada)

Sold in July 2008 for $ 400,000 to real estate developers who wanted to convert the church into a residence for the elderly, the project will unfortunately never happen. While the parish was ready to sell the property (church, rectory and a large...