The town of Belchite was almost destroyed during the Battle of Belchite and the siege which took place during the Spanish civil war August and September 1937.
Instead of rebuilding it, Franco, who reconquered the town in March 11, 1938, after Nationalist intensive bombing and artillery barrage, ordered that the ruins were left untouched as a "living" monument to the destruction caused by the Red Army, although both armies contributed.
A new town was constructed near the former, built by the enforced labour of the Republican prisoners of war.