Images from Ukraine resonate on visit to ‘living ruin’ in Spain

Laura Soriano opens the thick wooden doors and invites us through. The facade, which bears the words in Spanish, “Blasphemy is Prohibited,” dates to the 18th century, and as we begin our tour I assume we are entering a church.

But stepping inside there are no walls. Instead, the arched doorway opens onto a street, now a dirt road, where homes, churches, a theater, dance hall, and bank stood before the Battle of Belchite in 1937. And it has sat like this for more than 80 years – a time capsule of utter wreckage and ruination.

At any