More air raid shelters being opened up in Alicante - a visit to the Plaza Musico Tordera

The authorities in Alicante are slowly opening up some of the long-buried civil war architecture that lies beneath this beautiful city and which reveals its brutal past. I was hoping I might catch the team working on the large air raid shelter beneath Plaza Musico Tordera but I was out of luck and had to resort to peeling back the metal grill and trying to grab a shot of the entrance steps. The shelter was built for 700 people and is thought to be perfectly preserved since it was sealed up in 1947. It is due to be opened up to the public along with five other deep shelters over the next year or so. There was some signs of works opening up the large shelter under the steps leading up to IES Jorge Juan. I will be back for further investigations.

The Civil War air raid siren in the Santa Pola castle

I must have wandered through the square of the castle in the middle of Santa Pola dozens of times but I had a friend with me who had never been and as he looked up at the bell tower he casually asked "is that a siren up there?". I had never clocked it before and the grey mushroom-shaped metal piece jumped out me as I focussed in. I did a quick check on a previous blog entry and it is very similar to the siren on display in Alicante Market and definitely a throwback to the Civil War. It makes sense, Santa Pola was in the front line for the airborne raids of the Condor Legion bombers and the bell tower would be the logical place to place a siren. And there, over eighty years on, it still sits. I owed Tony a lunch down by the harbour for spotting it and his eagle-eyed vigilance reinforces the motto of the amateur historian - look up!

The Clot throws up another undocumented piece of Civil War archaeology

Sometimes as an amateur historian you just get lucky. It's happened to me a few times but occasionally you get the shock of your life when a landscape you are familiar with suddenly throws up some signs of something lurking in the undergrowth that hasn't jumped out at you before. I'd been taking a walk around the Clot De Galvany, more exercise than anything else, and was leaning on the railings on the photo point for the bird spotters overlooking the lake. It's a beautifully tranquil spot and there wasn't a soul in sight other than some wildlife out on the water. As I scanned the surroundings I noticed a glimpse of curved wall that needed checking out. Much of this area was terraced with local rocks by farmers many years ago to conserve water, it's a familiar sight but this was something different. I clambered down the hill and was knocked out to find the partly collapsed remains of a machine gun nest with the rusting anchors of the gun mount still visible. Another one I've not seen documented elsewhere. I was chuffed to bits to log it and photograph it before heading off for some cold beers to celebrate.

A return visit to an old friend

I sometimes get asked what is the closest piece of Civil War archaeology we can take a look at if we are in Gran Alacant and pushed for time, or don't want to spend hours clambering over rough ground and mountains trying to locate something that may not be there. Well, if you enter the Clot De Galvany at the Carabassi end and then take the first left turning on the track after a couple of hundred yards you will come across the splendid, camouflaged bunker in the first picture. It's a belter and I hadn't dropped by for a while and was pleased to see it is still in fine condition. Just in front of it there is a concrete trench installation that would have guarded the old main road now replaced by the sprawling urbanisation of lower GA. The trench is a bit overgrown not but apart from the obligatory graffiti remains in excellent condition with it's thick, buttressed walls and you can still see one of the old machine gun mounting positions. A remarkable survivor more than eighty years on.

A bust of the heroic Archibald Dickson is added to the memorial at the Alicante port

I'd been well pleased to hear that a beautifully sculpted bust of Archibald Dickson had been added to the Civil War memorial by the port side in Alicante and it looked fantastic in the sunshine when I stopped off on a gorgeous September day to take a look. Dickson was the skipper on the ship The Stanbrook which was the only vessel to break the nationalist blockade as up to 20,000 Republicans gathered to escape in the days and hours before Alicante finally fell to Franco and his Italian allies. At huge personal risk to both himself and his crew Dickson managed to cram over 2,600 evacuees onto his badly listing vessel. Due to some disastrous shenanigans in the final weeks of the Negrin Government, covered superbly in Paul Preston's book "The last days of the Spanish Republic", the Stanbrook was the last ship out of the port. Those left behind were herded to Los Almendros and then onto the San Isidro concentration camp to face torture, starvation and death. Dickson, a Welshman from Cardiff, has now been honored as the international hero he truly is.

Shrapnel damage and the air raid shelter in Plaza Balmis

You don't have to look far to see the lasting signs of the Civil War in Alicante. My general advice is to make sure that you look up! The railing around the old fire station, which is now the home of the Civil War museum, are a classic example. Just look closely and you will see where shrapnel has bent and gouged the uprights. A couple of blocks away the air raid shelter in Balmis Square now has a proper entrance. I've still not been able to get in there as the hours for access are limited and depend on having enough visitors to make it worth while. Just something else that I need to sort out.

The remains of trenches in the Sierra overlooking the Alicante road

On a hot June morning I spent the best part of two hours walking in searing heat and then clambering about on the steep slopes of the Sierra that sits just to the West of the Clot De Galvany. This is not a trip for the faint hearted as you need to climb up through the pines as you try to get your bearings. I had a rough idea of the location but was beginning to think it was a wild goose chase when I stumbled on it. Overgrown and partly buried, republican defensive trenches hacked out of the rock and overseeing the old Cartagena/Alicante road. The expected sea borne attack never came from the South. Alicante held out to the end before eventually being over run by Italian troops from the West and the North. As The Clash sang in Spanish Bombs.......can I hear the echoes from the days of 39? Trenches full of poets, the ragged army.......

The Alicante Market clock and siren - permanent reminders of the bombing raid

I've looked before that the horrific events on the 25th May 1938 when Italian bombers based in Majorca under Franco's direction launched a raid on Alicante market. 300 men, women and children were killed. Another thousand were injured. As you enter the ground floor of the market building from the front you will find a class case that contains the original market clock which stopped at the time of the blitz. The air raid siren you can see next to it failed to operate. The contemporary news coverage clipping is courtesy of the Restos de la Guerra blog.

MORE CIVIL WAR ARCHAEOLOGY BURIED DEEP IN THE CLOT DE GALVANY

I thought I knew like the back of my hand all of the old Civil War relics strewn across the Clot De Galvany but, as so often on this journey through Spain's past, there is always something lying hidden away that is waiting to be brought back into the picture. I'd been Googling something else when all of a sudden a picture of a ruined, yellow stone building with machine gun slits still in evidence popped up on my screen. It was marked as being on the Clot but the only form of identification was an impressive clump of palm trees. So I set out on the path that takes you right to the back of the nature reserve where it butts up against Arenales. Just as you wind round towards the section you have to climb up you will see the palm trees on your left. You really can't miss them. Head in off the beaten path and you will see the curved concrete of a Civil War-era structure. It's impressive and in good nick. Not so what I guess must have been some sort of guard house behind it. All that's left now is a couple of walls that could come down at any time. The picture at the bottom of this post shows the same structure six years ago when it was more complete and you get a much better feel for it. There is a deep well next to it that's fenced off. Was this the water source and reservoir for the Republican 225th Mixed Brigade who manned the various defences set out to guard the Cartagena/Alicante/Madrid road? Possibly, it would certainly make sense. The original picture is c/o the fabulous http://restosguerracivilenalicante.blogspot.co.uk blog.

THE ITALIAN ARMY BASE IN VILLAJOYOSA

If you head south along the beautiful sea front bay of Villajoyosa you will reach a rough coastal path, eventually this comes to an end at the Playa de los Puntos de Moro and you need to briefly head back in land before you can pick up the rough path that takes you back up to the cliff top and a superb, panoramic view across the bay. If you carry on along the path you will see looming large the ruins of the Villa Giacomina. You really can't miss it. The villa was built by Dr Alfonso Esquerdo who was the leader of the Republican Party in Villajoyosa and a major benefactor. The villa was named after his Argentinian wife, towards the end of the conflict it was used as a hospital but after the final fall of Alicante it was seized as a base by the Italian Fascist troops operating under Franco's direction across the region. When those troops left the villa fell into disuse and disrepair and has remained that way ever since. It is now a ruin, daubed in graffiti but there's a strange and ery feel to the place which now seems to stand as nothing more than a monument to the ghosts of Spain's Civil War past on this part of the Costa Blanca.

THE CNT CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL IN VILLAJOYOSA

Villajoyosa is a beautiful town. You can get there in about forty minutes on the tram from Alicante and it's a few short stops before you get to the terminal in Benidorm. Set into a large gorge carved out by a river it's famous for its chocolate museum and also the colourful houses that cling to the steep sides of the old river bed. Stunning, but I was here on Civil War duties and that meant searching out some relics from the conflict. I didn't have to look far. In the centre of the town you will find the tourist office, it's a beautiful building with lovely shaded gardens but during the Civil War it served a different purpose and was requisitioned by the anarchist CNT as a hospital. From the exterior I doubt much has changed in the past eighty years. Digging deeper into some old records there are reports that the anarchists in Villajoyosa were in regular conflict with other groupings on the Republican side and were accused of hoarding weapons and dishing our random assassinations. Divisive and damaging stuff when the enemy is banging at the door. I managed to find a contemporary picture of Villajoyosa's 72nd Mixed Brigade from the Republican side - if I can find a picture credit I will post it up.

The Customs House building in Alicante and it's Civil War secret

I must have walked past the old Customs House building on Levante Dock in the middle of Alicante hundreds of times. It's a fabulous old structure. What I didn't realise until very recently is that it hides its own Civil War secret. The section at the far end is actually a fake facade, made up to to look like the rest of the architecture but it concealed a Civil War era air raid shelter, presumably for the crucial dock workers. Seems a bit odd in a way that you would conceal a shelter in such a prominent building and I will try and find out the reasoning. I wasn't able to get in but I have heard that the shelter may be opened up to the public in the future. When I took a trip down some works were underway, I'm not sure if they are part of that project but I was able to get some pictures of the solid stone walls inside. Hope to hear more about this interesting piece of Alicante history in the future.

The El Faro Barracks - now tidied up as a picnic area

I don't know, mixed thoughts about this. The old El Faro barrack blocks that would have housed the units operating the anti-aircraft and other ordnance up by the lighthouse overlooking Santa Pola have been tidied up and converted into a parking and picnic area for the growing numbers making use of the excellent cycling and walking routes that zig zag across the area. On the positive side it guarantees that the structures should be maintained and more people will find out about the Spanish Civil War history of the area. Negative? Maybe just a bit touristy for the purest like me. I just hope that the truth isn't buried somewhere along the way. I will be up on a regular basis with some wine, olives and a cigar to toast those who fought here eight decades ago.

An extraordinary find out on the N332 main road.

A long hike out on a fresh February morning through the nature reserve, across the motorway and over wasteland to locate some of the most stunning pieces of Spanish Civil War military archaeology I have yet uncovered. If you walk down the track from Carabassi the full length of the fence that runs alongside the Clot de Galvany eventually you will come to the N332 main road. The first thing you will find is a derelict bunker at the roadside. Check that out and the very carefully cross over the road and enter what looks like a dump for hardcore. Climb up the mound opposite you and you will be amazed. Despite being overgrown and with some sections buried and running through private land there must be about a kilometre of reasonably well preserved Republican defensive positions on what would have been the old Alicante/Cartagena Road. This find really blew me away. It's effectively laid out like a fortress and must have been home to large numbers of Republican troops. The scale is breathtaking.