P Line, the Spanish bunkers built during World War II in Sierra Cavallera, Gerona

A few months after the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War began in September 1939.

One of the command posts of the P Line, created to defend Spain during World War II
The remains of a Czechoslovakian tank in the French-Spanish border bunkers

Spain, exhausted after several years of fratricidal war, was faced with the challenge of defending its border in the Pyrenees. Despite being a neutral country, Spain could have been invaded by both the Germans and the Allies. In anticipation of this, in 1939 the Franco regime began the construction of the so-called P Line in the Pyrenees. As I have already mentioned before, it was a network of fortifications whose purpose was to stop an invasion from France. Although the plan was to build 10,000 bunkers, around 4,000 were built, with construction work being completed in 1948.

This Wednesday, the excellent YouTube channel Aventuras Entresieras (to which I strongly recommend that you subscribe) published an interesting video making a route through the Spanish bunkers of P Line in Sierra Cavallera, in the north of the province of Gerona, in Catalonia. A route with intense cold, since it has been done in the middle of winter and in a mountainous area that reaches more than 2000 meters above sea level (the video is in Spanish, you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see some screenshots from this video here. The route starts at the Montserrat refuge, a beautiful little stone building. Here we see the intrepid Alfred, as always, leading the way.

The back of one of the P Line bunkers, specifically the one shown in the image at the top of this article. You can see its interior in the video.

Another well-disguised bunker on the side of a mountain. These defences were never used as the invasion they were intended to stop never took place.

Three entrances to three shelters on P Line. In the video you can see the interior of all three.