A route through three batteries of Cartagena and the sad cemetery of Escombreras

The construction of the Military Arsenal of Cartagena (Murcia) in the 18th century involved the installation of positions for its defense.

A tour of the coastal artillery batteries that protected the Cartagena Arsenal
The bunkers of Clot de Galvany, in Elche, and a house with a very macabre decoration

Many of these positions were built as a result of the 1926 artillery plan, drawn up by the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. In July, the channel Aventuras Entresierras (to which I strongly recommend you subscribe) took a tour of some of these old batteries, now abandoned: the Battery C-9 of Cenizas, the Anti-Aircraft Battery of Cabo Negrete, the Battery C-8 of La Chapa, the Battery of Loma Larga, the Battery C-1 of Castillitos and the Battery C-2 of Jorel.

Today, the channel has published a new video showing an interesting tour and two bivouacs through other batteries and places in the area: the C-50 Anti-Aircraft Battery in Atalayón, the C-51 Anti-Aircraft Battery in Roldán and the C-3 Battery in La Parajola. The route continues towards two abandoned places next to the huge Escombreras oil refinery, the largest industrial project in the history of Spain. These places are the old Escombreras cemetery and the old Escombreras church, located near the cemetery and now empty.

The trip ends at the Cemetery of Our Lady of Remedies, in Cartagena, visiting the tomb of an illustrious Spanish sailor: Isaac Peral, the inventor of the first submarine armed with torpedos.

You can see here some screenshots from this interesting video. We start with the Anti-aircraft Battery C-50 of El Atalayón, whose appearance imitates the architecture of the temples of ancient Greece. It was built in Cape Tiñoso and was equipped with four Vickers 105/45 anti-aircraft guns. It was disarmed in 1952 and abandoned in 1965.

Below, the Anti-Aircraft Battery C-51 of El Roldán, with a peculiar modernist architecture. Like the Atalayón battery, it was equipped with four Vickers 105/45 anti-aircraft guns. In 1959 there was an explosion in the powder magazine of this battery, with no injuries recorded. It was abandoned in 1965 and is now disarmed.

The Battery C-3 of La Parajola, whose architecture is inspired by ancient Egypt. It was equipped with four 152.4/50 mm Vickers cannons. This battery is sadly famous because one of its shots caused the sinking of the auxiliary cruiser "Castillo de Olite", after hitting its magazine with a direct shot when it was sailing towards Cartagena on March 1, 1939. Of the 2,112 men on board the ship, 1,476 died: the deadliest shipwreck in Spanish naval history.

The old Escombreras cemetery. It was abandoned after the construction of the aforementioned refinery, which practically surrounds the site of the cemetery and the church near it. As you can see in the video, the cemetery is in a sad state of abandonment, with broken tombstones and scattered bones. I hope this video will help the authorities do something about it, the dead also deserve respect.