The medieval walled town of Granadilla is a ghost town. Visitors can enter empty rooms, stroll through its fortified streets and admire the city from the top of its castle. But no one lives there. Not since all the residents were evicted in the 1960s.
Originally founded by Muslims in the 9th century, Granadilla occupied a strategic location that allowed its occupants to keep a close eye on the Ruta de la Plata, an ancient trade and travel route through the region.
Over the years the dominance of the town changed hands and today it is one of the few Spanish fortified villages where the ancient walls are still intact. But the community that lived here until the 1960s is not.
The end began in the 1950s, under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, when Spain embarked on a massive dam-building project to boost the economy during the period of isolation. The most important of these efforts was the Gabriel y Galán Reservoir on the Alagón River, and in 1955 authorities decreed that Granadilla was in the floodplain and therefore had to be evacuated.
Over the course of 10 years, from 1959 to 1969, the 1,000 inhabitants were forcibly evicted, many of whom were transferred to settlement colonies near the village. When the water started to rise in 1963, it covered all but one road leading to the village, turning it into a peninsula. But that’s as high as the water reached – the town itself has never flooded. Nevertheless, the residents were not allowed to return.