This bomb shelter in the Congrés-Indians neighbourhood, regis­tered by the Passive Defence Board of Barcelona, was rediscov­ered in 2007 during the renovation and refurbishment of Carrer Pinar del Río. The shelter was designed to be incorporated into the city’s sewage system after the war. It had three entrances, currently boarded up, and extended from Carrer Puerto Príncipe to Carrer Jordi de Sant Jordi, in a tunnel measuring 153.40 m. Of the two ventilation shafts for replenishing air in the shelter, only one is still standing on Carrer Jordi de Sant Jordi, which is not currently being used. Small cupboards can still be seen in the shelter along the tunnel, which at the time were used for storing staples like port­able lamps and water reserves. The central part of the tunnel has a square room, which was probably used as the shelter’s nursing area. Currently not open to the public.

The engineer Ramon Perera

Barcelona was bombed by the German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War. As a result, the Generalitat’s Junta de Defensa Passiva (Passive Defence Committee) commissioned the engineer Ramon Perera with designing a system that would enable to the population to take shelter from the attacks. Perera proposed the construction of underground shelters that could be accessed by steps from a block of flats or the street.

They were constructions crowned with exposed-brick Catalan vaults to resist the force of the bombs and with zigzag entrances to protect them from the blast waves. This was an advanced design for passive defence which proved effective because, according to historians, there are no records of fatalities in these shelters.

Other shelters

Barcelona has numerous shelters that can be visited and which allow us to discover what life was like for the city’s residents during the Civil War. Many used to shelter in metro and train stations and corridors too, such as the one at the Plaça de la Universitat station.