Читать книгу The GR11 Trail. The Traverse of the Spanish Pyrenees - La Senda Pirenaica онлайн

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Head S from the GR11 information board along the right-hand side of the square and up a concrete track which passes to the right of a tennis court and public swimming pool before joining a tarmac road. Continue to a junction on a bend with a probably dry water-point. Fork right up a track, then left and left again past a house and onto a concrete track, before forking right up a track. Rejoin the track and follow it to the final house. Take the left-hand track, still climbing, then go sharp left at a track junction onto open hillside. Fork right up the ridge to the summit of Santa Bárbara (1hr 5min, 396m, N43°15.955 W001°40.310). On the summit you will find a concrete bunker and a collection of monuments and memorials. The high mountain to the N is La Rhune (900m) in France.

In 1939 Franco ordered the Pyrenean border to be fortified and militarised. The plan was to build more than 10,000 bunkers from one end of the Pyrenees to another. Initially, the reason for the fortifications was to prevent the return of the Republicans, but plans were modified to thwart a possible German invasion and finally to prevent intervention by the Allies or the Maquis (French resistance movement). Construction continued until 1952, long after there was any justification for the defences. You will see the remains of this defence line at intervals along the GR11.