Moon Mausoleum
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
One of the most famous haunted towns in Spain is definitely Belchite. During the Spanish Civil War the prospering town got caught up in the battles and were left in ruins and as a warning from Franco what happened to those opposed to his regime. Today, it is said that the villagers still haunt the ruins they once called home.
One of the most famous haunted towns in Spain is definitely Belchite. During the Spanish Civil War the prospering town got caught up in the battles and were left in ruins and as a warning from Franco what happened to those opposed to his regime. Today, it is said that the villagers still haunt the ruins they once called home.
Spain is home to many haunted places, including the abandoned town of Belchite. Located in the province of Zaragoza in Aragon, Belchite is a ghost town that has been left in ruins since the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Spain
South of Zaragoza in Aragón is the former town of Belchite, a town that was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 in a big battle and all the 3000 people living in the village over a couple of weeks. After this, it was never rebuilt and no one returned to it.
There is a huge metal cross on the main square in the old village that is a memorial to those who died in the civil war between the Spanish Republicans and General Franco’s fascist rebel forces, as no one wanted to move back to it after the war.
Because of Belchite’s tragic past, the ghost town has left a dark reputation as one of Spain’s most haunted places.
Belchite was once a prosperous town with a history dating back to the 12th century.It was built as a fortress commune for knights that were going to the holy crusades and saw its fair share of battles in the Peninsula War between Spain and France in 1809. But it was a civil war that would be the bloodiest.
At the time there were around 4000 people living in the village, and those who were lucky managed to flee the place before all hell broke loose.
But was destroyed and the ruins of the town were left as is by Franco because he wanted to use them as a warning of what would happen to the people if they didn’t do as he said. The Republicans were actually making their way to Zaragoza to hinder the nationalists progress in the north.
One stop on the Republicans’ way to Zaragoza was Belchite, which was caught in between the two forces. At the time the little town was under Nationalist control.
The water supply was cut off and those trapped inside were starved to death in the scorching heat or killed in the battles that were going on in the hills.
Eventually the battle came into the village as the bombs had layd most of it to ruins and the republican forces came in with tanks and the warfare turned into street fights. They went from house to house and in the final week of August and first week of September.
Dozens of women and children tried to take refuge in the clock tower during the battles, but they lit the building on fire and smoked them all out.
The bodies were so many and thrown into a pile in the town square. At one point during those two weeks, the pile of dead bodies was a storey high before they burnt them in a gasoline fueled fire day and night.
The smell of the dead was so strong people had to wear gas masks, even if the heat was brutal. Some of the villagers also ended up entombed as they were thrown down a trujal, which is an underground olive oil press. Their bodies are still there today, it is said.
We don’t have an exact death toll over those who were killed during these two weeks as no one recorded it officially. However, eyewitnesses tell that as many as 5000, including the civilians, died.
The battle led nowhere really, and the republicans goal to stop the nationalists progress in the north failed and only a trail of ruins and dead was to show for the plans. In 1938 the Nationalist retook the ruins of Belchite. The Village of Belchite is Left in Ruins
After the Civil War ended in victory for Franco and his fascist and nationalist followers in 1939, Franco then ordered the construction of a new town nearby instead to let Belchite sit in its ruins. He wanted it to remain as a monument of the war for propaganda reasons and to show the world what his opponents did to the country.
Read more: Check out all of our ghost stories from Haunted Towns and Cities all around the world.
The new village wasn’t completed until 1954 and was built mainly by Republican prisoners from the war. Those left in Belchite had to roam in the ruins under the bricks and beams were corpses of their loved ones and their homes completely destroyed. The Clock Tower is barely standing upright and the cathedral is littered in bullet holes.
After the war Franco established a dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975. Perhaps the village is today remembered more brutally under the fascist regime than what Franco intended.
The town is said to be haunted by the ghosts of those who died during the war and those who were forced to flee their homes. Now they wander among the ruins that are never going to be rebuilt.
Both the farmers that live close to the abandoned city as well as those brave enough to visit this eerie place have reported hearing strange noises and seeing mysterious figures lurking in its shadows.
There is not just one ghost haunting this place, but rather a cluster of them. People claim to have heard many calls in the empty streets, among other things they claim to have heard a call from a small child to its mother at dusk echoing faintly in the abandoned streets.
The church of San Agustin is badly damaged after those fateful days, but the ruins of it are still towering in the old village with its belltower. Before the civil war it was a gathering place for all in town, today it looms over the ruins with no one attending the church. Still, there are strange sounds coming from the belltower.
In the following years the town got a haunted reputation, especially the former church and school was said to be haunted by something paranormal. People claim to have heard the church bells ringing from the empty bell tower. Today the town is a memorial of the tragic past and is only accessible with a local guide.
Until 2014, the ruins of Belchite were free for everyone to wander as they liked, but now the town is restricted to guided tours and is fenced off to try to keep the ruins as they were.
People come to Belchite as tourists to try to learn about the history and what happened here, as well as people who used to live there and their relatives. The village also gets a couple of more odd visitors seeking something else. The abandoned town gets a lot of ghost hunters coming in with their equipment to try to get some of the supposed hauntings on tape.
The place has even become a popular movie set for movies and commercials and parts of Pan’s Labyrinth were filmed there.
Today the Civil War is still a sensitive issue in Spain, where there are still people alive from the time. Politics is often still divided into left and right as it was then, although perhaps not so polar opposites, but the shadows and ghosts of Belchite remains as a reminder of just how destructive it can be.
Visiting Spain’s Most Haunted Locations | Right Casa Estates
