Cold War fort with 35-km range projectile launcher overlooking Catalonia

La Batería de Cenizas, also known as C-9, is a coastal artillery support fortification located on Monte de las Cenizas, within the municipality of Cartagena (Region of Murcia, Spain) and specifically in the district of Rincón de San Ginés. Its access is located on the road connecting Los Belones with Portmán.

Declared a cultural asset of interest on August 7, 1997, the battery was built and armed between 1930 and 1934 as per the 1926 projected plan, during the program for the defensive equipment of the strategically important city of Cartagena under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. The battery was equipped with two coast guns from the British company Vickers-Armstrongs, model 381 mm/45 calibers - fifteen inches. These pieces had the power to disperse an almost one-ton projectile up to 35 kilometers.

Its role was to protect the entrance to Cartagena Bay along with its sister, the Batería de Castillitos, built two years earlier and located on the Cabo Tiñoso, in a crossfire that would prevent the entry of hostile elements.

During the Spanish Civil War, it played an important role, as it had to deter the naval base, of the Government of the Second Republic, from the Francoist army. Years later, due to the technological advances produced during the Second World War and the Cold War, its location and armament became obsolete.

It remained in service until 1994, when the application of the Plan NORTE was carried out, which sought a greater use of the resources of the Armed Forces. It houses in its interior a machine room, powder and spare parts stores and a loading chamber.

Currently, the battery is abandoned and a victim of progressive deterioration, with its guns unusable, until today, when it is found in a poor state of conservation. In this regard, in October 2014, it was included by the Hispania Nostra association in its Red List of endangered heritage.

Alberti de Cenizas is located at an altitude of 305 meters and its entrance portal is inspired by the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá, in the post-classical Mesoamerican style.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons