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The entrance to the ruins of the old village of Belchite is seen in northern Spain, October 3, 2016. Almost 80 years ago Tomas Ortin fled under the cover of night from his home in the small town of Belchite on Spain's northern plains to escape with hundreds of others from one of the bloodiest battles of the country's civil war. At 94 years old, Ortin now lives just across the road from Belchite, which has lain in ruins since Republican forces attacked it, a symbol of the destruction caused by the 1936-1939 war in which an estimated 500,000 people died. The siege of Belchite was part of a Republican offensive in 1937 to capture Zaragoza, capital of the Aragon region, from the Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco, who went on to win the war and establish a dictatorship that lasted 40 years. Nationalist-controlled Belchite represented a key obstacle given its strategic location in the red-brown hills south of Zaragoza. As many as 6,000 people died defending it before those left surrendered. It became one of the civil war's most infamous battles. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)
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