Approaching an end

 The original plan was to the most subversive thing, to leave your front door and begin the adventure there.  We went to Compostela.  We know about rural depopulation in France and Spain.  Then we went to Santander.  Now we are about to enter Calaceite.  Unlike before we are going to wander all over the Calaceite.  After that… who knows?  Well, I do but that’s for later.



We will end on the edge of Calaceite so lets find out why.  One reason is the place the area plays in the history of the British Battalion of the International Brigades.  The battalion was marching from Belchite towards Calaceite, when one of those incidents that the chaos of war throw up.  Some tanks approached the retreating troops. Mistaking these Italian Fascist troops for those of General Lister's Communist 5th Regiment, the battalion was caught by surprise.  Many were forced to surrender, others were caught in the fire including the battalion commissar, Walter Tapsell who was killed and George Fletcher, the acting commander, was badly injured.  The remaining 80 Briagders retreated to Gandesa.




Calaceite is one of those hilltop towns which have attracted people for thousands of years.  More than adequate Bronze Age materials have been found. Evidence of Islamic era irrigation ditches and dams are evidence.  In 1132 Alfonso I took the place from the Moors, who then took it back. Ramon Berenguer IV nabbed it again in 1149.



The 17th century was not kind to Calaceite. Plague hit in 1625 and drought in the 1640s.  During the 1640s Catalan uprising Franco-Catalan troops sacked and burnt the town - and stole the clock from the old church.



The current population is around 980. It has steadily declined from the post civil war 2750.  The main business if farming and the main crop olives - with almonds and some vines.




Currently the mayor is of the TEA party.  Wiki proclaims TEA [Teruel Exists] is from regionalism, localism, pragmatism, sustainable development abd the fight against depopulation.  It is Transversalism - which is much less exciting than it sounds. The 2023 election saw 3 TEAs, 2 PPs and two Socialists.  Historically it was a fight between the two main left and right wing parties.



Tomorrow we go exploring.


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