DZ CHARLIE

Spanish Civil War 1936–1939

Campo de Los Almendros memorial, Alicante

Repression & memory site

GuideSpanish Civil War 1936–1939
AreaValencia, Murcia & the Balearics
TypeRepression & memory site
When30 Mar–6 Apr 1939
Time to allow20 min
LocationExact spot known
GPS38.35740, -0.46930
Open the free field guideDirections (Google Maps)

The story

Prisoners taken at Alicante port were held in an almond grove in La Goteta, about 3 km from the centre. The site was an open field of roughly 200 × 80 m ringed with barbed wire, with almost no food or water. For about a week from 31 March 1939 some 18,000–19,000 people were held here, though estimates run from 18,000 to 30,000. From here most were moved to Albatera or to prisons, and some were taken out and shot. The Nationalist army recorded 6,800 military prisoners. A campaign by the Alicante Vivo association led to a park named after the camp, opened in 2012, and a monument unveiled in 2014.

What you can see today

A small memorial monolith in a neighbourhood park on the former camp site. No original structures survive.

Plan your visit

Open public park; a 5-minute visit, near the MARQ archaeological museum and the Plaza Mar 2 centre.

Where sources disagree: Prisoner numbers range from 18,000 to 30,000, and deaths are estimated at anywhere from 600 to 2,000; there are no reliable records.

Sources

Nearby sites

All 158 sites in Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 →

The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939

A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The battlefields, trenches, ruined villages, shelters, museums and memorials of the Spanish Civil War across the whole of Spain, told fairly from both sides.

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