• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Lo riu exposition

   
   - darkometer rating: 3 -
  
An exhibition in La Fatarella, in the Terra Alta region of Catalonia, northern Spain, that is about the Spanish Civil War, more precisely about the final phase of it and the Battle of the Ebro as well as its aftermath. It's more battlefield-archaeological in nature than any of the other war-topical exhibitions in the Ebro. This makes it rather specialist.   
More background info: In general see under Ebro and Spanish Civil War.
  
The full official name of this place is “Exposició 1938, l'última resistència republicana a l'Ebre” associated with the Espais històrics da la Batalla de l'Ebre, and run by the “River Association for the Study of Historical and Archaeological Heritage of the Terres de l'Ebre”, or just “River Association” for short, or “Lo Riu” (even shorter) in Catalan.
  
That is: this place is not part of the portfolio of the Consorci Memorial dels Espais de la Batalla de l'Ebre (COMEBE) that runs the Internationals exhibition that's just round the corner, nor is it associated with the CeBe in Gandesa.
  
All this can be important because, as my guide let on that, there are different “factions”, as it were, within the local circles of battlefield archaeologists and historians and there are some real rivalries and animosities between them.
  
But for the outsider, especially a foreign visitor this has at best practical implications. That is why it is a good idea to visit these less “official” sites and exhibitions with the sort of guide who can “mediate” between the different factions – such as the man I used when I was on my tour of the region (see under Ebro).
  
  
What there is to see: Not all that much, certainly not in terms of what is accessible to the non-specialist.
  
This is a real battlefield-archaeology buffs' den!
  
There are a few exhibits, primarily items collected from the battlefields such as grenades, helmets, personal items and clothes, as well as the odd machine gun or pistol. And a number of dummies are dotted around donning the outfits of the various sides involved in the Spanish Civil War.
  
But the main thing here are the intricate charts of the battlefield archaeology dig sites together with photos of finds and the progress of excavations. Some of these sites I had visited with my guide (see under Ebro) independently and at some of them such excavation and/or reconstruction work was ongoing.
   
But I found the wealth of archaeological and war history detail a bit overwhelming. So I spent my time here looking around the exhibits and photographing (see the gallery below) while my guide was talking shop with the people who run this exhibition and are involved in the archaeological digs. They clearly had a lot to exchange, chatting away for at least half an hour. But since all that was in Catalan I didn't get any of what was being said – nor did I even try to listen. My guide just gave me a selective summary afterwards (see also above under background).
  
All in all, I found this perhaps the least rewarding of all the various exhibitions I visited in the Ebro region. It was just too specialist – and very little was to be seen that was engaging enough for the foreign non-expert visitor. But for dyed-in-the-wool Spanish Civil War history buffs it may well be worth it.
  
  
Location: on the western side of the old town centre of La Fatarella, Catalonia, Spain, on the intersection of Carrer Vall d'Estudi and Carrer Sunyer.
  
Google Maps locator: [41.1627, 0.4722]
  
Access and costs: restricted, but free.
  
Details: While the address is easy enough to find within La Fatarella, being literally just a few steps up the road from the Internationals in Ebro exhibition, I found it impossible to find anything out about regular opening times. I guess it's one of those places you have to arrange to visit. At least I found some contact details: you could email them at loruiassociacio(at)gmail.com or phone: 646925114 / 639991749 (at least those were the details posted on a wall at the site when I was there in April 2015).
  
When I visited, it was my guide (see under Ebro >access details) who phoned ahead and did all the talking with the people at the exhibition (in Catalan – nobody there spoke any English). If you can speak the language well enough, you can try it on your own. But even then I would still recommend using this guide, as he has a very good rapport with the people involved, and without that it can be difficult to get positive responses from them as an outsider.
  
As far as I can remember I wasn't charged any admission fee when I visited this place – so I presume it is generally free of charge, but I can't be 100% certain.
  
  
Time required: not long, unless you are a committed Spanish Civil War battlefield archaeology buff.
  
  
Combinations with other dark destinations: The other war-themed exhibition in La Fatarella, about the Internationals, is more easily accessible both in terms of practicalities as well as the nature of its design and topic, especially from the point of view of a foreign visitor. So it's actually much more of a must-do when coming to this little town than the Lo Riu exhibition.
  
  
Combinations with non-dark destinations: See under La Fatarella and also under Ebro in general. 
  
  
   
  • LoRiu 01 - outsideLoRiu 01 - outside
  • LoRiu 02 - insideLoRiu 02 - inside
  • LoRiu 03 - dummy commie fighterLoRiu 03 - dummy commie fighter
  • LoRiu 04 - inappropriately shodLoRiu 04 - inappropriately shod
  • LoRiu 05 - display cabinetLoRiu 05 - display cabinet
  • LoRiu 06 - helmetsLoRiu 06 - helmets
  • LoRiu 07 - guns and ammoLoRiu 07 - guns and ammo
  • LoRiu 08 - bigger bitsLoRiu 08 - bigger bits
  • LoRiu 09 - hand grenadeLoRiu 09 - hand grenade
  • LoRiu 10 - more peaceful relicsLoRiu 10 - more peaceful relics
  • LoRiu 11 - tins of fishLoRiu 11 - tins of fish
  • LoRiu 12 - from NorwayLoRiu 12 - from Norway
  • LoRiu 13 - battlefield archaeologyLoRiu 13 - battlefield archaeology
  • LoRiu 14 - crate of hand grenadesLoRiu 14 - crate of hand grenades
  • LoRiu 15 - mounted war relicsLoRiu 15 - mounted war relics
  
  
  
  
  
  
 

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