Republican trenches at Rojales

I'd picked up a tip from an ex-pat blog post from some years back in Torrevieja that there were some Republican slit trenches near Rojales. Probably defending the old road inland from the naval base at Cartagena. The information was sketchy but suggested that they were just outside Rojales along the dried river bed of the Segura as it heads towards the coast to Guardamar. On a fresh February morning I jumped a couple of buses and decided to do the walk inland along the river. It's about two hours each way. A lot quicker to hire a bike if the bike hire shop is open! Anyway, I made it into Rojales in time for a lunch and it's a beautiful, historic little town. Over lunch I check the limited details I had and headed back out on the hunt. After a couple of false starts I found a hill cut back from the road that seemed to fit the description. Unfortunately it had been recently fenced off and I needed to get on top of it. I'd walked a long way and didn't want to go back empty handed and where there's a will there's a way! Squeezing through a narrow gap I clambered up and was rewarded with an extraordinarily well-preserved network of slit trenches elevated above the old road. Snapping my pics I got away as quick as I could. Nowhere on the web have I seen pictures of these important anti-fascist military positions. I was chuffed and headed off for the long walk back to Guardamar and some celebratory beers and tapas before the bus home rolled in.

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.

Benidorm - Republican Bunkers on Levante Beach

Before it grew into the mega tourist resort that it is today Benidorm was a small fishing town sitting on the Northern tip of the Bay of Alicante. This strategic location meant that it had a key role to play in any potential sea-borne invasion of the Spanish Republic by combined fascist forces during the Civil War. Six bunkers, forming part of the Mediterranean Wall, were built in and around Benidorm. It was only recently that I found out that one of these, and a fraction of another, still existed when it was reported that the local PSOE were fighting to get them listed and protected. The bunker at the top end of Levante Beach is as extraordinary as it is surprising. It is possible that it has survived so well as it now supports the bar and terrace of the Hotel Nadal above. Thousands of tourists a year must pass over it without any knowledge of the anti-fascist history below their feet. At the other end of Levante, near the Municipal Offices, only the stairs of the other bunker remain and appear to be used now to access the beach. I wish the PSOE well in their efforts to get Benidorm's Republican history preserved and recognised. Apparently contemporary pictures of the town's bunker network still exist. I need to locate try and locate them.

Calpe on the Costa Blanca withdraws honours awarded to Franco

Interesting clip from the local paper about Calpe on the Costa Blanca erasing some of the tributes to Franco awarded to the dictator. This follows moves in Denia just a few miles up the coast some years back to rename streets that honoured the nationalist regime. All of these developments show that the ground is shifting and that local campaigning is making a real difference. It's good, positive news.

Cartagena - the Republican naval base and it's superb Civil War museum

The Republican naval base at Cartagena was, predictably, a major bombing target that was repeatedly battered by Hitler and Mussolini's planes swinging in from the Med.Like other cities along the Costa Blanca that were key targets, the resilience and bravery of the local people is extraordinary. In Cartagena that bravery is marked in a fantastic museum set in an air raid shelter that held over 5000 people. This museum is regarded as a model of the way that historical memory from the Civil War period can be marked. Hewn from rough stone, and with an interactive soundtrack and contemporary film footage dating back to before the 1936, the museum succeeds in its objective of transporting you back in time to get at least a feel and glimpse of what life was like in these communities under repeated fascist bombardment. If you get a chance to make the trip to Cartagena you should take it, not just for the Civil War museum but also to take a look at the extraordinary remains of the Roman ampitheatre excavated in the centre of the town. You will not be disappointed.

At long last - a memorial on Alicante dock side

So, at long last Alicante has its memorial to the Republicans captured at the end of the Civil War on the City's dockside. It has taken decades of struggle, and a seismic shift in the political make up at the City Hall, to enable this to happen some 77 years after the event. It is a sharp and fitting tribute and it's not tucked away in a corner, it is right there on the main portside walk although the backdrop of luxury yachts is a bit incongruous. I was chuffed to see that the International Brigades Memorial Trust had been over for a visit and that Alicante has twinned with Cardiff in memory of the heroic Archibald Dixon, captain of the Stanbrook, who took huge risks to rescue as many refugees as he could. For the rest, it was concentration camps, death and torture. They will now never be forgotten.