Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Puente de los Franceses
Madrid (Moncloa) · City site
The story
This 19th-century railway bridge over the Manzanares was one of the crossings the Nationalists needed to break into Madrid from the Casa de Campo in November 1936. Republican militias and troops, soon joined by the newly arrived International Brigades, defended it; the fighting here is remembered as part of the Brigades' baptism of fire. It gave its name to a popular Republican song ('Puente de los Franceses, mamita mía, nadie te pasa'). The Nationalists eventually crossed the river further north and entered the University City instead.
What you can see today
The original brick-and-granite five-arch bridge, still carrying trains.
Plan your visit
View from the Madrid Río riverside path or the Paseo de la Florida; 15 minutes' walk from Príncipe Pío.
Sources
- es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_los_Franceses
- es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_los_Franceses
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Madrid
Nearby sites
- Parque del Oeste bunkers · under 1 km
- Arco de la Victoria (Moncloa) · 1 km
- Ciudad Universitaria front · 1 km
- Cerro Garabitas, Casa de Campo · 2 km
- Templo de Debod — site of the Cuartel de la Montaña · 2 km
- Telefónica building, Gran Vía · 3 km
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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