El Pillbox

ON a recent visit to Spain I was walking along the Costa Blanca near the city of Altea when I came across an abandoned pillbox.

It is a survivor of eight that were apparently built on local beaches by Republicans in response to a sea blockade established by Nationalists' fascist allies in the Spanish Civil War.

Altea pillbox - still enjoying a commanding view of possible landing sites 

Most of the pillboxes have been allowed by civic authorities to go to ruin, or been destroyed by the action of the sea undermining the pillboxes' gravel base, or, in at least one case, completely submerged by the sea.

But the one I saw was in fairly good condition - superior in preservation to most British examples, according to a specialist report I saw.

None of the Altea pillboxes ever fired a machinegun in action, it seems, and perhaps events in Spain in the 1930s are now long enough ago that the above surviving pillbox can be preserved and restored by the local council without causing anyone undue offence.