Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Valle de la Serena – Republican defence line (La Serena pocket)
Trenches & fortifications
The story
From late 1936 the Republic held a large salient in eastern Badajoz, the 'La Serena pocket'. Along the Guadámez valley Republican engineers and local masons built concrete-and-brick machine-gun posts linked by zigzag trenches; one carries the inscription 'AÑO 1937'. In July 1938 Queipo de Llano's Army of the South attacked, taking Castuera, Campanario and Villanueva de la Serena and cutting off much of the pocket, while the Republican front fell back to the Zújar and Guadiana. Unlike the famous fronts, these works are almost untouched and little visited.
What you can see today
Small round and square fortines (about 3 × 3 m inside, four firing slits) and stretches of trench at Cañada Honda and Los Palancares, controlling the roads to Puebla de la Reina and Don Benito.
Plan your visit
On farmland off local roads; no signage — go with a local guide or the 'guerracivilenbadajoz' route notes, wear boots, respect livestock gates. The pin marks the town: ask locally for the exact spot.
Sources
- mapcarta.com/Valle_de_la_Serena
- andanzasdeunloboestepario.blogspot.com/2018/06/patrimonio-y-guerra-civil-en-la-comarca.html
- guerracivilenbadajoz.com/?catid=10&id=153&view=article
Nearby sites
- Campillo de Llerena – Civil War Museum & Italian cemetery · 21 km
- Castuera concentration camp (La Verilleja) · 25 km
- Almendralejo – Purificación church tower & memorial · 53 km
- Puente Romano, Mérida (fall of Mérida) · 53 km
- Palacio de los Golfines de Arriba, Cáceres (Franco HQ 1936) · 99 km
- Puerta de la Trinidad, Badajoz · 103 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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