Five Of The World’s Most Mystifying Ghost Towns

Published January 11, 2013
Updated November 9, 2023

Belchite, Spain

In order to fully understand the crippling effect war has on communities and come to terms with man’s capacity to destroy, one must first muster the courage to set his or her feet directly within the community in shambles. And once you step foot on the blood red soil of Spain’s Belchite and behold its skeletal foundations, it is clear just how damning war is. The eponymous ghost town was the unfortunate host of the Battle of Belchite, a devastating leg of the Spanish Civil War that claimed the lives of some 6,000 people, in 1936.

Following the arguably pyrrhic Nationalist victory, party leader Generalissimo Franco ordered that Republicans rebuild the town as he held them responsible for its demise. But Franco, the beastly conqueror that he was, demanded that the wartime rubble remain as a so-called testament to the ills of communism.

Belchite Spain Picture

Source: Trip Advisor

Belchite Photograph

Source: Flick River

Mystifying Ghost Towns Belchite

author
Savannah Cox
author
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.
editor
Savannah Cox
editor
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.