The route of the forgotten bunkers of Ripollès

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Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
13 September 2023 Wednesday 10:54
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The route of the forgotten bunkers of Ripollès

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

You can follow a route following the trail of the bunkers in the Vall de Ribes and the Collada de Toses, in Ripollès, some of which can be seen in this report in La Vanguardia's Readers' Photos.

In Planoles, on the way to the Font de la Vena we find a couple of bunkers on Line P (Pyrenees Line) of the nearly 10,000 that were planned and built between 1940 and 1948.

When the Spanish Civil War ended, these facilities should have been used to defend themselves if there was an attack from France or from the maquis, but the truth is that they were not of any use.

In the Collada de Toses is located one of the resistance centers of Line P that controlled the roads GI-400 and N-152, which, from Cerdanya down towards Ripoll.

During the summer of 1940, the Republican prisoners of war of the 65th and 70th Disciplinary Workers Battalions built these bunkers in this sector, designed by Commander Vicente Martorell Otzet under the direction of the 2nd and 3rd Fortification Regiments.

At an elevation of 1790 meters on the western slope of Puig de Canelots, a section of trenches is preserved. And in a stream in the nearby Plana Rodona you can still see a unique construction that could have served as a latrine or as a sentry box.

They are made up of anti-tank bunkers protected by machine gun nests. In this other series of photographs we can see the bunker between Nevà (Toses) and Planoles.