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.

The anti-aircraft positions by the lighthouse up at Cap De L'Horta

Bit of a nuisance of a thing for the amateur Spanish Civil War historian when you schlepp out some distance from base on tram and on foot only to be confronted with fences and locked gates. Where there's a will there's a way and I haven't come all this way for nothing so it's a case of scale a wall and hang off a chain link fence and hope for the best. Not bad for an old geezer with a dodgy back and shot knees. This republican anti air craft position is by the lighthouse at Cap de L'Horta north of Alicante. It would have been part of the network of defences circling the bay, taking in El Faro and Serra Grossa. Plans are afoot to open these positions up as part of the Historical Memory initiative. I will be back. It's an easy run out on the tram to Cabo Huertas and then walk the rest. Great to see the original iron gun mountings in place.

One last untouched Civil War relic up at El Faro

Up at El Faro between Gran Alacant and Santa Pola, where this adventure started for me, much of the Civil War era archaeology has been refurbished and merged into the new cycle and walking routes. But if you hack through the pine groves behind the old barrack blocks you will find this one remaining untouched, collapsed and overgrown republican anti aircraft position. The concrete mounting hole for the gun remains intact. Eighty years ago this would have been in full operation trying to take out Condor Legion planes on bombing raids into Alicante. I like the fact there is at least one unmolested relic left up here.

Socialist Civil War HQ in Alicante

I want to spend some more time looking at the surviving architecture in Alicante that dates back to the Civil War era and its use during that period. The Real Liceo Casino De Alicante is an imposing building directly fronting the harbour and during the conflict it was requisitioned as the HQ of the Socialist Party. Although it has clearly undergone some remodelling over the years I understand that a lot of the interior has been preserved but unfortunately I was unable to get access on this occasion. I will keep trying.

ANOTHER ANTI-AIRCRAFT POSITION HIGH IN THE HILLS ABOVE ALICANTE

I'd been up the Sierra Grossa just outside Alicante on my last trip to look at a beautifully preserved anti-aircraft position but what I didn't realise was that there another installation just a few hundred metres further on at the end of the pathway. Again, you reach it by winding your way up the mountain from the access point at the end of the tram platform that serves the Plaza Mar shopping centre. You won't be disappointed. Just follow the track along right to the end and clock the fantastic views across the bay. You will find some steps down and you can check out this particular position which looks like it has has had some recent restoration. I suspect it was more of a look out point designed to relay information back to the anti-aircraft gunners on incoming fascist plains as they swung off the Med towards Alicante. It's another piece of the defensive jig saw and I'm pleased to slot it in to the blog.

A fascist monument still standing on the Costa Blanca

A fascist monument on the Costa Blanca. Been wanting to capture this monstrosity for a while now. So after yomping a couple of kilometers back along a motorway with no pavement in over 30 degrees heat I finally find the location between the airport and Alicante. It was built by Franco in the early forties to commemorate 50 fascists from the Vega Baja who were taken out on the very spot by Republican troops as they headed towards Alicante with a plan to free Falangist leader Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera who was being held in the town. There's no signage other than the recent fash graffiti- For the Martyrs of Spain - but the ugly nazi brutalism is blatant. Why it's still standing, and well maintained, is beyond me.