
Records say that in Barcelona the civilian population organized to build 1,322 air-raid shelters to protect them against the bombings of the fascist air force. Today, there are only four of these shelters in the city that can be visited, one of which has just been opened this week after having spent almost a century hidden behind a wall: the shelter of La Sagrera.
This January 17, a shelter discovered in 2014 during the remodeling works of the Sagrera Tower, in the neighborhood of Sant Andreu, was opened to the public. The space, hidden behind a wall, was built by neighbors in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, its existence was unknown and that it was in an exceptional state of preservation thanks to having remained closed for decades.
An intact shelter
With more than 80 square meters, the shelter preserves original elements such as electrical wiring, light bulbs, latrines, a ventilation shaft and even drawings and writings of the time, all absolutely intact thanks to the fact that the shelter remained absolutely sealed since the Civil War. This discovery makes the shelter one of the best preserved in Barcelona.
The Sagrera Tower, formerly known as Torre de la Marquesa or Torre del Genovés, was built at the end of the 19th century as a private residence. During the war it was collectivized and converted into a neighborhood school. In the 1980s, it was about to be demolished due to the urban planning linked to the works of the AVE, but the neighborhood mobilization saved the building, which today functions as a neighborhood casal
The shelter does not appear in the inventory made by the Junta de Defensa Pasiva of July 16, 1938, as it was a private shelter, perhaps due to the pressure exerted by the workers of the collectivized company that operated in the building. The space takes advantage of the cooler built in the second basement of the Tower and is made with Catalan volta, like many of the shelters built at the time.
The shelter has an access from inside the Tower and another from the outside, which was discovered in 2021 with the redevelopment works of Berenguer de Palou street at its intersection with Clara Zetkin street. The re
4 visitable shelters of the more than 1,000 that existed in the city.
From this weekend , the shelter joins the few spaces of this type that can be visited in the city, along with the Refuge 307 of Montjuïc and those of the Plaza del Diamante and Plaza de la Revolución, in Gràcia. For safety reasons, visits to the Sagrera Tower shelter are limited to groups of five people accompanied by a guide, and take place every Friday and Saturday.
The appearance of the Sagrera shelter, which did not appear in the records that indicate the existence of 1,322 such spaces in the city, gives an idea of how many places there are still to be discovered in the city.