LukeVisited Belchite. The town was the focus of fierce battles during the Spanish civil war, being captured by Republican forces as they sought to reconquer Aragon which had endorsed the coup d'etat of Franco. <br> <br> The town, whilst heavily bombarded, did survive the war, many of the buildings in these images were still inhabited into the 1950s. But Franco wanted to make an example of the town, being one of few the Republicans captured after Nationalists had seized parts of the country. So a new town was built, soulless and suburban, and now home to a population a third the size of what it was before the civil war. <br> <br> Franco insisted the old town be left to rot as a monument to what communism does, ironic of course as it is the clearest example of what fascism does. <br> <br> Highly recommend visiting. The area was a front line in the civil war and therefore there is a lot of history around.<br> <br> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/belchite?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#belchite</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/history?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#history</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/spain?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#spain</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/españa?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#españa</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/historia?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#historia</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/civilwar?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#civilwar</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/guerracivil?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#guerracivil</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/franco?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#franco</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/españarepublica?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#españarepublica</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/internationalbridgades?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#internationalbridgades</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/travelphotography?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#travelphotography</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/photography?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#photography</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/sony?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#sony</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/nex?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nex</a>