A ghost town in north eastern Spain has become a Mecca for so-called dark tourists who come to explore its wind-whispering streets and forlorn avenues.
Belchite, in the province of Zaragoza, was once a beautiful medieval city home to knightly orders and boasted an impressive church and stunning architecture.
But in 1937, a brutal battle was fought over the town between the forces of fascist dictator General Franco and Spanish Republican elements, which almost wiped the settlement off the map.
Nearly 90 years later, bullet-ridden shells of buildings are all that remain, serving as a reminder of the horrors of war and one the bloodiest chapters in Spain’s history.
The blasted landscape now attracts visitors who seek out more macabre locations, as well as people who want to learn from the history of what has gone before.
The unsual frozen-in-time devastation of Belchite has also been an inspiration for filmmakers, with Terry Gilliam’s 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Guillermo del Toro ‘s Pan’s Labyrinth both being filmed in the town.
Travellers who have braved the bleak streets of Belchite recorded some of their thoughts on the destination review site, TripAdvisor.
One recent visitor wrote: “Be very aware that the site is essentially no more than a ruined and devastated sited (sic). It’s story is key, and so what the guide has to tell you is what really makes this visit worthwhile.”
Another added: “Most people have probably not heard of Belchite but I suggest you make the effort to take a detour and visit. A casualty of the ferocities of the civil war, the village has been left in ruins as a reminder that war is hell.”
The Battle of Belchite took place from August 24 until September 7, 1937, and resulted in a hard-fought victory for the Republican forces.
Nearly 5,000 people are thought to have been killed in the conflict, including many of the 4,000 civilians who lived in the settlement.
The Spanish Civil War attracted volunteers from all over the world to fight on the Republican side against fascism, including fighters from Britain and the United States.
Famed American author Ernest Hemingway was a correspondent during the Battle of Belchite. He wrote of the American volunteers and Republican fighters in one of his dispatches, saying: “Since I had seen them last spring, they have become soldiers. The romantics have pulled out, the cowards have gone home along with the badly wounded.
“Those who are left are tough, with blackened matter-of-fact faces … for three days they fought from house to house, from room to room, breaking walls with pickaxes, bombing their way forward as they exchanged shots with the retreating Fascists from street corners, windows, rooftops and holes in the walls.”
