Welcome to the SITES OF THE BATTLE OF THE EBRO, a historic route through one of the most decisive settings of the Spanish Civil War. The itinerary includes a series of routes through historic sites and interpretation centres spread across the regions of Terra Alta and Ribera d’Ebre, the main settings of the 115 days of fighting that made the Ebro the bloodiest, hardest and most decisive battle in the entire war.
Bot Town Council and the Democratic Memorial of the Generalitat de Catalunya have promoted one of these routes through various parts of the town. The itinerary starts here, at Bot Station and continues through five additional sites, some within the town and one along the Greenway between Bot and Prat de Comte.
The route is adapted for children, and you can connect to the game Awakened by Silence, where the Giant of the Mountains shares stories from that time and invites players to help restore his treasured rest.

The battlefront reached Bot suddenly in the first week of April 1938. The unstoppable advance of the Francoist units, coming from Aragon and taking Republican-held areas on the right bank of the Ebro, soon reached the Terra Alta region. On 2 April, the town was occupied by soldiers of the Littorio Division, one of the units dispatched by Italian fascism to aid Franco during the Civil War. Before they arrived, residents – and even entire families with left-wing beliefs – fled the town for fear of Francoist reprisals. The displaced included Republican mayor Francesc Roig Grau, members of the town council and devoted locals such as Jacinto Caseres, who was murdered by the Nazis at Gusen in February 1941. The Italian presence was short-lived, although it left a lasting mark on the municipal cemetery, where over 130 of their soldiers, killed in the battles of the Lower Ebro that April, were buried.

With the front line established along the Ebro River, Francoist troops took up position on its right bank to defend and oversee the territory they had captured. From then on, Bot took on a new role when the Val de Zafán railway line was extended to Pinell de Brai, allowing for a faster supply of troops and materiel.

Article on the opening of the Val de Zafán Railway, September 1941, from the Diario Español newspaper. Photo: BHMT

The Val de Zafán railway was one of the most eagerly awaited transport infrastructures in the Terres de l’Ebre region. A railway line to connect Aragon with Port dels Alfacs had been planned since 1863. The goal was to carry passengers and boost the sale of agricultural products and coal from the mining areas of Teruel. Construction began in 1882 at Puebla de Híjar (Teruel), attended by King Alfonso XII. The first part of the line, reaching Alcañiz, was officially opened in 1895. It would not be until half a century later that the train reached Tortosa, the capital of the Baix Ebre, in September 1941, amid great public excitement. The final stretch to La Ràpita, however, was never built.

Beyond commercial interests, the route was intended for national security: by running parallel to the Ebro, the track could strengthen a defensive line along the river in case of a military invasion from the Pyrenees.

The train, popularly known as the ‘Sarmentero’, was in service in the Terres de l’Ebre region for thirty years The collapse of part of a tunnel between Pinell de Brai and Prat de Comte in 1971 led to the initial closure of the line. It closed permanently in 1973.

The line came back to life in the year 2000 as a greenway for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy. The route through Terra Alta, between Arnes and Pinell de Brai, winds through an ecologically rich landscape, crossing numerous tunnels and viaducts.

Military presence in Bot was minimal when the Republican army launched the Battle of the Ebro in the early hours of 25 July 1938. Around thirty soldiers from the engineering corps formed the garrison, which was in charge of the railway station. On that day, they removed and then replaced a twelve-meter section of track to render it unusable against the advance of the Republican Army, which captured Pinell de Brai Station within hours.

Two days later, on 27 July, Republican troops reached the outskirts of Bot, firing rifles and machine guns, but were unable to enter the town itself. To fend them off, the garrison took up arms and gave weapons to five townspeople. Most of the town hurriedly left their homes, while a few hid indoors. That afternoon, the Chapel of Sant Josep was captured, from where Republican troops fired on the train station, increasing the threat to the already fragile Francoist defence. However, the arrival of Falangist soldiers, Moroccan mercenaries and legionnaires strengthened the defenders, forcing the Republican troops to retreat. Another attempt reportedly took place on 30 July, with a similar outcome.

A resident of Bot in a doorway of the town during the Battle of the Ebro. Photo: BNE

A day earlier, on 2 September, Bot was targeted by the Republican air force, comprising six ‘Katiuska’ bombers escorted by twelve fighter planes. At least three bombs fell on the station and the old town, killing a local resident, Francisco Fontanet Vilagrasa, and a train stoker. The bulk of the load, however, was aimed at an artillery unit stationed on the town’s outskirts, in the area known as ‘Camí del Molí’. The sudden attack claimed the lives of up to twenty-eight Francoist soldiers.

The outbreak of the Battle of the Ebro turned Bot, in just a few days, into a key stronghold within the immediate Francoist rear area of the front line. Several facilities were set up there, including up to three hospitals, each with its own surgical team led by Doctors Cerrada, Ley and Roldán. The medical facilities also included an emergency post, a reception point, a triage area and a distribution centre. Those who were too seriously wounded to be moved were treated in the town’s hospitals.

Historians and residents of Bot place two of the hospitals on Freixes Street: in Freixes House and the former Sarau building, no longer extant (the site is now occupied by the municipal market). The third unit was at 11 Carrer Major, in Paladella House.

Picture of a Francoist ambulance parked in plaça de l’Església. Photo: BNE

More is known about this latter hospital thanks to the testimony of the women from Bot who worked there. The mezzanine and first-floor rooms of this manor house, built between the 16th and 18th centuries, were adapted to accommodate around one hundred beds in spacious wards with large windows. The building had an operating room, and according to sources, patients were assigned to rooms based on rank and type of injury. The hospital was run by Dr Cerrada, assisted by a team of professional nurses and local women who carried out auxiliary work. Family accounts from two of these women speak of an extremely intense workload: long working days divided amongst various tasks such as cleaning and disinfecting medical equipment, making beds, preparing meals for the soldiers and other jobs.

Thousands of Francoist soldiers and some Republican prisoners were treated in Bot, and a significant number of them had fatal injuries that caused immediate death. The town began taking in men just days after the Battle of the Ebro began, but it was not until the fourth Francoist counter-offensive on 3 September 1938 that the work reached a gruelling pace. A large number of the wounded belonged to the 1st and 13th Francoist divisions.

A series of photographs confirms the presence of ambulances full of patients being distributed from the town square to the hospitals. In fact, local scholars place the first-aid station here, in a house on Carrer Major, number 2. British nurse Priscilla Scott-Ellis, serving with the Francoist forces, gave a vivid account of what life was like in the town during those days: ‘Bot is a tiny, grimy village, packed with ambulances rushing in and out. There were always at least three of them driving at the same time around the square.’

The July 1936 military coup, which marked the start of the Civil War, failed in Catalonia. However, the uprising spurred a revolutionary period across the country, led by anti-fascist political parties and trade unions. In Bot, a number of buildings, estates, olive oil mills, wine cellars and farmyards were confiscated from owners considered right-wing. At that time, the parish church was looted and confiscated. Shortly afterwards, work was carried out to partially demolish the apse in order to widen the street leading to the square. They also set fire to the Chapel of Sant Josep, located on the town’s outskirts. Before long, a group of workers began using some of the confiscated goods to improve their means of subsistence. The leftover stone from the partially demolished apse was reused to build a farmyard for the organisation.

However, the most shocking event was the arrest of around forty townspeople and subsequent extrajudicial execution of thirteen of them, who were later glorified during the Franco dictatorship as the ‘Martyrs of Bot’. They were shot in three separate groups over the months of August and September, in the areas of Corbera d’Ebre, Gandesa and Tarragona. Among those executed were two conservative former mayors, Josep Pujol Clua and Miquel Martí Meix. For decades, a large plaque topped with a cross on the side façade of the church commemorated their names, along with those of three Francoist soldiers who died in combat. Included in the Census of Francoist Symbols of Catalonia, the element was removed in 2010, during the term of Mayor Francesc Fidel, coinciding with renovation works on the church.

After the most intense phase of the social revolution, a new town council was formed, controlled by anti-fascist parties and trade unions. A significant measure during this period was the printing of municipal currency to help people buy and sell goods while fractional currency was scarce. Bot Town Council approved issuing five different denominations, ranging from one peseta to ten cents.

The town faced new upheavals with the arrival of up to 117 war refugees from other regions of Spain and the conscription of local men of military age into the Republican forces. According to the Generalitat, twenty-six residents of Bot – voluntary and forced soldiers alike – died in combat on both sides of the war.

The fascist occupation of the town in April 1938 marked the beginning of a new phase in the war. Under the government of the new municipal authorities and the single party, Falange Española, a period of arrest, imprisonment and trial of left-wing residents began. Up to 109 locals or residents from Bot fell victim to Francoist repression. Eleven were executed by firing squad, many received prison sentences, while others avoided imprisonment due to lack of incriminating evidence.

Systematic political persecution forced part of the population to leave their homes. When Franco’s forces took over Catalonia, many fled across the border into exile. Two years later, in 1941, families from Bot made up of mothers and their minor children were held in internment camps such as Rivesaltes, where they endured harsh living conditions Those exiles who risked returning faced public humiliation, ostracism and social exclusion. In one shocking instance, several women had their heads shaved as a form of public humiliation.

The municipal cemetery was a prominent burial site for Francoist soldiers throughout 1938. Following the town’s capture on 2 April and the ensuing fighting focused between Paüls and Xerta, 130–140 of the fallen soldiers belonging to the Corpo di Truppe Volontarie (CTV) were buried here. They were all Italian, except for seven Spaniards from mixed units within the Italian expeditionary corps sent by Mussolini to aid Franco. This mass grave was to contain the largest number of fascist combatants in the Ebro region.

The bodies, wrapped in a sheet, were buried without a coffin. A wooden cross bearing the name, rank and combat unit stood at the head of the grave. These were later replaced by tombstones bearing the same information. A monumental cross crowned the site. Their comrades-in-arms paid tribute to them on several occasions in May and June. Some photographs survive, including one showing locals giving the fascist salute.

After the Civil War, the Italians were transferred to Zaragoza where a mausoleum was built to house them all. Nevertheless, Bot still preserves dozens of their tombstones, some partially buried in one of the cemetery’s paths.

The Battle of the Ebro broke out on 25 July 1938. Located just behind the Francoist troops’ front lines, Bot accommodated several of the rebel army’s services, including three hospitals operating in local buildings. Bodies were placed on carts and taken to the municipal cemetery. The Army had to convert a large 2,800-square-metre farm behind the cemetery into a new military burial site.

Most lost their lives in the bloody Francoist counter-offensives between September and November. Almost 1,500 were buried, under the supervision of a military chaplain. These were Spanish soldiers of various ranks – including several dozen Republicans – along with just over one hundred Moroccan mercenaries. Buried in more than sixty trenches of varying lengths, a bottle bearing their name and unit was placed between their legs. A small wooden cross marked the grave.

The ossuary remained intact for twenty years, surrounded by barbed wire. Everything changed in the spring of 1959, when the dictatorship exhumed the site to move the bodies to the Valley of the Fallen, a memorial built to glorify Franco and those who died for his cause. In the town, the process involved the participation of local residents, who were forced to dig the trenches and remove the bones, first placing them in baskets, and later in individual and collective urns. Sometimes, personal items, such as chains, watches and rosaries, were discovered. Only a few of the soldiers had been recovered earlier when their families came forward to claim them. A total of 1,172 combatants were transferred. The site is now a plot overgrown with abandoned almond trees.

When Francoist troops took the right bank of the Ebro in the spring of 1938, work on the Val de Zafán railway accelerated. Military logic dictated the need to extend the service to newly occupied areas, so laying tracks where none existed became the top priority. By mid-April, trains were running as far as Valljunquera (Matarranya), and by June the line had been extended to Pinell de Brai, passing through Bot.
The dictatorial regime brought Republican prisoners of war from the concentration camps to carry out these tasks. They were organised into units known as Workers’ Battalions. Two of these, Workers’ Battalions No. 66 and No. 68, were the first to reach the railway line.

In fact, most of the work in the Terres de l’Ebre region, between Horta and Xerta, had been completed before the outbreak of the Civil War. The developers regularly hired a thousand men to carve the route through the rugged landscape. The construction of more than forty tunnels, three viaducts forty metres high and several bridges allowed the railway to navigate the rugged terrain. Construction was far from straightforward due to public funding problems, as well as strikes and worker lay-offs.

During the Battle of the Ebro (July–November 1938), service to Pinell de Brai was interrupted, as this station – the last in operation at the time – had fallen into Republican hands. The front line between the two sides was established between this point and the Bot halt, with sporadic fighting taking place even inside the tunnels. Meanwhile, this same stop served as the arrival point for various combat units and vast amounts of war material – up to 3,000 tons a day – with trains consisting of as many as twenty-nine wagons. The less seriously wounded could be evacuated from the town by train to Aragon.

Work on the line resumed at the end of the year with renewed forced labour. From then on, efforts focused on ballast work on the slopes between Valljunquera and Pinell – which required opening quarries along the route under very harsh conditions – laying tracks between Terra Alta and Aldover, and the reconstruction of several viaducts damaged during the war. From 1940 onwards, the Workers’ Battalions were replaced by Disciplinary Battalions of Working Soldiers (BDST), which included former conscripts labelled as ‘disloyal’ and deserters from the rebel army.

Altogether, between 1938 and 1942, more than 2,700 prisoners organised into five disciplinary units were sent to the Val de Zafán railway along the Ebro. It was hard and dangerous work, demanding great physical effort and always carried out outdoors. Accidents were frequent, prisoners received little rest, were poorly fed, endured corporal punishment, were subjected to constant ideological instruction and experienced persistent exploitation. Nevertheless, the ongoing presence of prisoners in the area allowed them to establish relationships with local residents, some of which became romantic.