Thursday 5 January 2017

Trenches and other defensive positions on the old Alicante road

At the very far end of the Nature Reserve at the Clot de Galvany you can find some of the best preserved Republican positions on the whole of the Costa Blanca. These positions would have protected the old route from the south up into Alicante when a seaborne invasion supported by Hitler and Mussolini along the coast down to Cartagena was seen as a real possibility. The concrete slit trench would have been equipped with light machine guns behind the main bunkers. It's a long walk through the Reserve to get to these points but the wildlife and scenery en-route are stunning.

The bunker protecting the disused rail line into Alicante docks

I was on a bus on the way into Alicante when idly glancing out the window I spotted across the road through some bushes what looked like the curved concrete roof of a bunker. Jumping off at the next stop I crossed the busy three lane into town, climbed a couple of fences and was stunned to find a perfectly preserved Republican gun post protecting the now-disused single track railway line into the Port of Alicante. I have never seen this one documented before. Not only is the bunker in great condition but you can follow the overgrown rail track all the way up to the old derelict station which would have been the main point for supplies into the City as it held out to the end during the Civil War. This discovery really did blow me away and is one of the most extraordinary slices of living history that I've come across on this journey.