Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts

Monday, May 30, 2016

The Spanish ghost town of Belchite, left in ruins after the Spanish civil war


The Spanish village of Belchite, in the province of Zaragoza, became the theater of the Battle of Belchite from August 24 and September 7, 1937 which was fought between loyalist republicans and rebel forces of General Franco. It took just two weeks for Belchite to be destroyed on one of the deadliest of the Spanish Civil War. Although Franco's nationalist forces lost the battle, they went on winning the war which killed around 500,000 people. 

In memory of the 3,000 people who died there, the village has remained untouched since the end of the Spanish Civil War.  After 1939, a new village of Belchite was built adjacent to the ruins of the old. Today, the ruins of Belchite are visited by tourists and they have been used as filming locations in films including Terry Gilliam's 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.











Monday, May 2, 2016

The abandoned Canfranc International Railway Station


Canfranc International Railway Station opened in 1928 in the village of Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees. It was the point of entry to Spain for the Pau–Canfranc railway, joining France to Spain and passing through the Somport railway tunnel under the Pyrenees. King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the president of the French Republic Gaston Doumergue were both present on the station's inauguration. 

The huge station, featuring a 240 metres (790 ft) long Art Nouveau building, with 300 windows and 156 doors was essential as passengers, together with luggage and cargo travelling from Spain to France and vice versa had to change trains because of the different rail gauge used in the 2 countries (standard gauge in France vs Iberian gauge in Spain). During World War II, the station became associated with the Nazis during the war, as they used it to transport gold out of France, and tungsten the opposite way.

The station closed in 1970 when a train derailment demolished a bridge on the French side of the mountains. The French decided not to rebuilt the bridge and the cross-border line was closed. Today the station is still in operation for domestic trains, with 2 daily passenger trains to and from Zaragoza-Delicias railway station. However, more modest station facilities are used with the main building remaining abandoned since 1970. 









Monday, June 24, 2013

The Spanish ghost town of Ciudad Valdeluz


Ciudad Valdeluz is a suburb 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Madrid, Spain. It was meant to be city of 30,000, but only 1,000 people took up residence there after construction halted in 2008 with 75% of the city unfinished due to the economic downturn.

Today, Ciudad Valdeluz resembles a ghost town with the few residents being served by a supermarket, a corner shop and a medical center open twice a week. A security patrol watches over the deserted streets and the empty buildings. 






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Monday, July 23, 2012

Ciudad Real Central Airport, Spain


Ciudad Real Central Airport is an abandoned airport in the south of Ciudad Real, near Madrid. The airport opened in 2009 and cost 1.1 billion Euros. It shut down in April of 2012.

It was intended to serve both Madrid and the Andalusian coast, each accessible by AVE high-speed train in 50 minutes. However, due to poor planning and overoptimism, major deficiencies in the early planning stages were overlooked. The airport never had demand from the major airlines, with carriers Nostrum and Vueling announcing routes but terminating them a few months later. The passenger traffic was measured in the low thousands, compared to the anticipated traffic of up to 10 million.

From October of 2011 no airline made use of the airport; it was only used occasionally by private jets. Spanish financial crisis deteriorated the situation and the airport ceased operation on 13 April 2012.

The 4,000 meter runway has to be continually painted with yellow crosses, so pilots flying over the airport will know they cannot land there.

In 2014 it was reported that a Chinese investment company entered into an agreement to buy the airport for just €10,000. A year later it was reported that a UK group had purchased the airport for at least 28 million Euro.




SEE ALSO: More abandoned airports around the world // More abandoned places in Spain // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
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