Drive from Zaragoza to the hills of Catalonia (c. Later, Franco ordered the ruins to be left untouched as a ‘living’ monument of war. Described ‘as a particular kind of battle at close quarters’, it bore the brunt of a fullscale – but ultimately failed – Republican offensive to seize Zaragoza. This thriving town, with its medieval and baroque buildings, was decimated in summer 1937. In the afternoon drive southeast to Belchite. The cathedral was bombed in August 1936, but the bombs miraculously failed to detonate and remain to be seen. Take the high-speed train to Zaragoza, regional capital of Aragon. At Morata de Tajuña, a large private museum has become a repository of photographs, memorabilia and artefacts relating to the conflict. Poems and diaries, maps and photographs help build a picture of events on site. A memorial to the latter remains a rallying point for commemorations by their descendents. Though trenches scar the olive groves, the thyme-scented hills at Jarama appear to reveal little of the bloody battle of February 1937, in which 10,000 Republicans were killed, including many fresh volunteers to the International Brigades. A small museum, the result of one man’s determination to preserve the memory of those who fought, testifies to the still-hidden history of the civil war. Here, over the course of a fortnight in July 1937, the Republican attempt to relieve Nationalist pressure on the capital was thwarted. Drive west to Valle de Los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), site of Franco’s vast and controversial mausoleum. The Reina Sofía gallery houses Picasso’s Guernica, the predominant artistic symbol of the civil war. A morning walk focusing on civic and civil war landmarks. Dinner at a restaurant frequented by Hemingway and the International Brigades. An introductory lecture is followed by a walk to The Prado, to examine four history paintings that place Spain into context for what unfolded in the 20th century. 10.30am from London Heathrow to Madrid (Iberia). Those who came to watch – Hemingway, Dos Passos, Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and Martha Gellhorn – will shed light on why this war (in which Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin all took part, while Britain embarked on appeasement) was so important to a world that was preparing for the bloody confrontation of ideologies that began in 1939. The International Brigades and other foreign volunteers who fought for the Republicans against Franco – from Laurie Lee and John Cornford to Orwell and Simone Weil – will help us assess the impact of the conflict on civilians and society, politics, church and state. Goya, Picasso, Gaudí, Orwell all provide clues. We will turn over the stones – visiting secret museums, hidden graves, underground basilicas, research institutes and galleries that help to explain what happened and why. This is not a battlefield tour with a focus on military logistics, though battlefields will be seen and contemplated. How did they emerge? What sparked the final collision between fascist-backed, traditionalist reactionaries and their opponents, ranging from moderate democrats and separatists to violent anarchists and communists? Spain has tried to turn its back on the civil war, so accessing its history is difficult. This tour investigates these two Spains and the violent conflict they produced in which both sides committed atrocities. Spain returned to democracy after his 40-year dictatorship, but ghosts from that time still haunt the country.

In 1936, the confrontation between those two Spains provoked a ferocious, three-year civil war between the Republicans and the Nationalists in which 400,000 died – many of them civilian victims of death squads or tribunals set up by the victor, General Francisco Franco. “May God take mercy on you/ One of the two Spains will freeze your heart”.

In a tragically prescient poem written in 1912, Antonio Machado warned infant Spaniards that they had been born into a divided country. Listen to Giles Tremlett introduce this tour:

Map of spanish civil war