Spanish Walk Before The Lockdown

Before the Lockdown – a Last Hike in Spain

Long ago – you must forgive my faltering memory; age and distance make things so blurred, and ancient events hold on by their fingertips, and then drop away. It must have been March 2020 (can you remember then?).

Well, in those times, I went walking in the sierra behind Nerja, guided with friendship and expertise by professional guide, John Keo.

Nerja: costa dystopia or hillwalking utopia?

I have never been on a flight to or from Malaga, Costa del Sol, which hasn’t been full or nearly so – and I travel mostly mid-week and avoid peak holiday periods. The departure gate waiting areas are interesting for the amateur sociologist.

Just after the Easter school holidays, the hobby was easy enough to indulge. At Gatwick there was a scattering of families with pre-school infants. Almost all the rest of the 180 or so passengers were what the Americans call “snowbirds” – the grey or white haired folk who migrate, either temporarily or permanently, from the frozen or wet northern parts to The Sun.

Burglary in Spain

BURGLARY in SPAIN

“I have robbed”, I confessed to the bemused young Guardia Civil officer after I had found my way inside the rather imposing Guardia Civil barracks in Nerja (there is internet speculation that certain chips in the stonework date from the times of Civil War firing squads). My phrase book had correctly prompted me to say “me han robado”  (“they have [someone has] robbed me”), but in my somewhat panicky state it came out as “he robado”.

Nerja and Frigiliana - Moors, Civil War and the Costa (April 2015)

 NERJA AND FRIGLIANA – MOORS, CIVIL WAR AND THE  “COSTA”

When someone offers the opinion that a particular Spanish town on the South coast (Costa del Sol) is “unspoilt”, there must always be implied the qualification “relatively”. The next question is, “relative to what?”. Large swathes of that coastline are hideous.

NERJA FEBRUARY 1937

NERJA: FEBRUARY 1937

On 9^th February 1937, Italian troops, leading the Nationalist forces approaching from Malaga, entered Nerja, their motorcycle outriders roaring down the Calle Pintada. Thus ended the local manifestation of the Republic, for Nerja had been a Republican-held town until that day.

It seems that Nerja was one of countless towns and villages across Spain where similar events unfolded from the outset of the Nationalist uprising in July 1936. There was a leftwing backlash against people perceived to be Nationalists or their sympathisers-  especially clerics, landowners and professionals. In Nerja, a truck-load of anarchist militiamen from Malaga came over to help matters along – several alleged right-wingers, including the local priest (whose church had been ransacked), were taken to the Rio Seco to the west of Playazo beach, and shot.

The communist mayor of Nerja, elected in August 1936, tried to calm these inflamed and murderous tendencies. But sporadic assassinations continued.

When Malaga fell in early February (the subject of an earlier post on this site), the retreating Republican troops temporarily established their headquarters in Nerja (for a matter of days). This brought air attacks – machine guns and bombs, including at the junction of Calles Pintada and Carabeo.

Republican forces and much of local population, turned refugees, were soon in full flight along the coast road (N 340) towards Almeria. This exodus, which started from Malaga and gathered people as it went, is notorious for the pitiless and indiscriminate bombing, machine-gunning and naval shelling of the wretched columns.

One objective of the Nationalists was the destruction of bridges along the road, to slow the Republican retreat. One such bridge was (and still is) the one in the barranco gorge between Nerja and Maro, a couple of kilometers or so to the east. The task of destroying it was given to Nationalist naval forces. They couldn’t see the bridge, as it is built well down below the lip of the gorge. What they could see was the high, proud and elaborate profile of the Aquila Aqueduct further up the gorge. This C19 construction, built in classical style (and still aqueducting today) the Nationalist warships mistook for the road bridge, and their shells were aimed accordingly. Thus the fleeing Republicans and refugees were granted precious time to cross the actual bridge. (The nationalists realised their mistake at last when water was observed to be pouring out of the damaged aqueduct.)

Taken by the Nationalist, Nerja endured the usual bloody purges of leftists and liberals. The cinema was the place for summary trials; the cemetery the place for summary and quasi-judicial executions.

The aforementioned communist mayor of Nerja somehow escaped death. Two lengthy spells of imprisonment sandwiched time spent as a guerrilla in the Sierra. He outlived Franco.

This narrative is taken from a Spanish book, “100 Anos  de Nerja en Fotos”  by a local historian, Pablo Rojo Platero. What he writes rings true and is consistent with the overall history of the Civil War in the Malaga area.

The fact that Nerja was in Republican control until February 1937 unfortunately casts doubt Laurie Lee’s account of the War as witnessed by him in Almunecar, just up the coast to the east of Nerja ( the final pages of“As I walked Out One Midsummer’s Morning”). There can have been no clashes with “Nationalist militias” occupying Nerja in the autumn of 1936. There can have been no mistaken bombardment of Almunecar by Republican warships trying to strike Nerja.

April 2015