We were still heading west towards Galicia and our next overnight would be in Haro in the La Rioja Region. On the way, however, we made an impromptu stop at Belchite which is a 40 mile drive south east of Zaragoza in Aragon.
A small town of just under 4,000 people in 1937, it was the scene of a bloody 13 day battle during the Spanish Civil War between Franco’s Fascist Nationalists and the Communist Republicans. The Republicans won the battle for the town but it was a pyrrhic victory with between 5,000 and 6,000 people being killed and; at the end of the war, which was won by the Nationalists, Franco demanded the town be left in ruins as a living monument to the destruction he said was caused by the Republicans invading the town. He further insisted that Republican prisoners build a new town (Belchite Nuevo) down the road.
The ruins of Belchite Viejo (and those of nearby Roden) have been left almost exactly as they were after the battle although, more recently, the old town was fenced off (because of vandalism and increasing safety concerns) and may now only be accessed by prior appointment and with a tour guide. That is not so easy when the decision to visit is made so spontaneously and when there is only a short window of opportunity in which to visit. Having said that, I found a hole in the fence and had a good scout around before bumping into an official tour party and having to scarper.
The following three photos were taken just outside the official entrance into Belchite’s ruins on Plaza Goya. Nothing was open and there was no official about to advise as to how I could gain entrance. A coach driver parked up near where I left the Van referred me to the town hall but it was closed.
Having found a way into Belchite Viejo, my first thoughts were that it’s an unsettling place, particularly in the area of the 15th century Church of San Marin (San Martin de Tours). It’s so full of tragedy. The church served as a shelter during the height of the battle and a number of people who sought protection there were buried under tons of rubble after the church dome collapsed during a Republican bombing raid. I read that some remain there to this day.
If little remains of the Church of Saint Martin, there’s even less remaining of the neighbouring 18th century Convent of San Rafael where Dominican nuns used to care for orphaned girls but, in truth, the same can be said of the whole town. It was devastated and the ruins are as shocking a reminder of the misery of war as I have seen. Even now, more than 85 years later the horrors of what took place in Belchite continue to surface. Euronews reported as recently as October 2021 that the Spanish authorities had unearthed the bodies of dozens of men and women who were believed to have been executed by Nationalists in Belchite at the start of the war. The hands and feet of many were bound and some showed signs of having been tortured.
At the centre of the town in the Old Square (Plaza Vieja) is a 14th or 15th century clock tower built in the Mujedar style. It is all that remains of the Church of Saint John. Alongside it is an imposing “Iron Cross of the Fallen”. The cross was raised by the same Republican prisoners who built Belchite Nuevo and it sits on the same spot where so many of the fallen from both sides were subsequently cremated.
And the new town? There’s little of interest in Belchite Nuevo except perhaps for it’s current population of 1,500. Some sobering street art perhaps?
