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

Ravenloft Castle
Upstate, New York (United States)

Ravenloft Castle is hidden deep into the woods outside a small town in upstate New York. Construction began during the early years of World War I. Unfortunately, the owner never had the chance to live in it, as he died three years before the...

Façade
Montréal, Quebec (Canada)
Everything except mattresses

When we went on Marien Street, we were expecting to find a mattress factory damaged by fire in December 2011 and left abandoned ever since. As evidenced by the huge sign «Matelas» and the name plate identifying the...

Former military base of Saint-Hubert
Saint-Hubert, Quebec (Canada)

Dismantled in 1995 by the federal government, the former military base of Saint-Hubert is located close to the airport of the same name. In 1928, the Ministry of National Defence inaugurated the airport to connect by the sky Canada to the United...

The Shelburne abandoned Youth Centre
Shelburne, Nova Scotia (Canada)

* * * * *

UPDATE - Message from the owner: this facility is no longer abandoned and will be a regularly used Airsoft field for local groups that someone could be injured. This means that anyone coming on to the property to take photographs...