The Abandoned Village of Los Goldines

[Guest]

Unlike most of the abandoned villages I've visited, the residents of Los Goldines did not voluntarily leave their homes for economics reasons. Instead, they were evicted by the State during the Franco era. Then the buildings were demolished so they couldn't return.

This was due to the creation of the Cazorla-Segura National Hunting Reserve in 1960, as it required a change in the usage of large tracts of land, land that contained a number of villages and whose residents were evicted. Los Goldines is one such village, and like the others all that remains today are the ruins of some of the expropriated houses.

What happened to the villagers? Apparently they were then taken to live in Santiago de la Espada which is 25kms away.

Were they financially compensated? It doesn't seem like it, because it appears some of the affected families are still trying to pursue legal action to try and recover what used to be the land and dwellings of their grandparents.