The Old Town A mute witness of violence Bookmark and Share
Consulted sources
- Hemeroteca Diari de Tarragona
- Own information diarideguerra.com

If one town symbolizes the pain caused by the battle of the Ebro, this town is Corbera d'Ebre. Located on the top of a hill, in the center of the war front, today the streets and houses in ruins of Poble Vell are a mute testimony to the violence and the brutal consequences of war.

Corbera d’Ebre had a population of around 2.500 inhabitants in 1938. Before battle of the Ebro begans, before Corbera was bombed by the elite unit of the german airforce, the Condor Legion, and by Franco artillery; three in four residents left their homes, moved behind national lines in the direction of Caspe, or hid in farmhouses near Corbera d'Ebre. On the morning of July 26, 1938, soldiers of the XIII International Brigade of the 35th Division entered in Corbera d'Ebre after brief fighting with Franco forces who defended it.

On 25, 26, 27 and 28 July was bombeb by Condor Legion. On 15 August, a third of the houses had been affected by the bombings. The situation was dramatic in september, following a massive artillery attack during one of the counteroffensives planned to break the republican line. The republicans kept the town until 4 September when fell into the hands of Franco's army. During these months, the town was destroyed.

After the war, and while increased degradation in the old town, the inhabitants were moved to the bottom of the village, along the road N-420. In this way, and except other towns in the area were completely rebuilt, the ruins of dozens of abandoned houses of the old town became a symbol of the battle of the Ebro.

Old Town was declared a historical place protected by the Catalonias’s Generalitat in 1992. It has also become a monument to peace and must-see attraction for anyone who wants to know the horrors of war.

The most characteristic building of the Old Town is the church of San Pere and the square in front of her. From this square you can enjoy a magnificent view of the mountains of Cavalls and Pàndols, one of the main historical sites of the battle of the

The Alphabet of Freedom

In 1995, a group of people created in Old Town the alphabet of freedom, a group of 28 works of art, mostly sculptures, which seek to promote values of peace, justice and the rejection of war and military confrontation. Two years later, several writers and poets wrote a text that accompanied each of the sculptures.

The remembrance

Extract from an article by Andreu Caralt in Diari de Tarragona on August 20, 2007 with several members of the board of Poble Vell de Corbera d'Ebre about the situation of the town during the Battle of the Ebro

Before the civil war, in Corbera d'Ebre lived 2,000 people, twice than today. During the first occupation of Franco’s army in april 1938, many neighbors, committed to the republican cause, fled across the Ebro in July. And, in the beginning of the Battle of Ebro, another group of residents escape through Caspe, away from the front. On 25, 26, 27 and 28 July Corbera was bombed by German airforce. "The neighbors who still lived took refuge in the houses," explains the Poble Vell’s Patronage, Juan Antonio. "And those who could not do, children and elderly, could be hiding in the village," he added. On 15 August, a third of the houses had been affected by the bombings.

The situation was dramatic in september, following a massive franco’s artillery attack during the counteroffensive to break the republican line. The neighbors, once silenced the guns, returned to their village. "Poverty, hunger, disease, collapsed houses and dead bodies were not removed until two years later," says the member of the patronage, Joaquín Clua. "The fields were planted with projectiles, and people, to survive, had to 'go the bullets', namely to collect what they could to sell as iron"."Children dressed in clothes of the soldiers and used their sandals and a cartridge" he added.

The neighbors, ultimately, returned to their homes collapsed, but also built new ones, on the road, in what is now the center of town.