Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Puente Romano, Mérida (fall of Mérida)
City site
The story
Mérida was the key road and rail junction between the Nationalist south and north. Around 2,600 militiamen and loyal forces held the Guadiana line against columns under Asensio, Castejón and Tella. On 10 August the Legion's 5th Bandera rushed the 2,000-year-old Roman bridge, which the defenders had mined; the charges were not fired (Nationalist accounts credit Cmdr. Luis Alarcón de la Lastra with disarming them) and the troops broke into the city. Mérida's capture linked Seville with Mola's northern zone. Mass detentions followed: the bullring, the Santo Domingo convent and the barracks became prison camps, and executions took place at the cemetery wall.
What you can see today
The Roman bridge (now pedestrian) over the Guadiana, where the assault crossed; in the town, the town hall on Plaza de España and a memorial at the municipal cemetery to the victims of the repression.
Plan your visit
Free, always open; walk the bridge from the Alcazaba end (10 min). The cemetery memorial is a short drive north of the centre.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_Romano,_M%C3%A9rida
- es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batalla_de_M%C3%A9rida
- elsaltodiario.com/memoria-historica/merida-lugares-de-la-memoria-como-testigos-de-la-historia
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_Romano,_M%C3%A9rida
Nearby sites
- Almendralejo – Purificación church tower & memorial · 26 km
- Puerta de la Trinidad, Badajoz · 53 km
- Valle de la Serena – Republican defence line (La Serena pocket) · 53 km
- Former bullring (Palacio de Congresos) – Badajoz massacre memorial · 54 km
- Palacio de los Golfines de Arriba, Cáceres (Franco HQ 1936) · 62 km
- Campillo de Llerena – Civil War Museum & Italian cemetery · 63 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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