Barcelona Poble Sec Refugi307 Air Raid Shelter near Montjuic

Barcelona was the first city in the world to face the new warfare strategy of arial bombardment of the civilian population. During the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939), Franciost forces, being aided by the Italian Navy and air force and the German Airforce began bombing indiscriminately the population of Barcelona to take out key infrastructure such as railway hubs, the industrial areas of the city and the port.

Refuge 307 is one of the 1200 plus anti-aircraft shelters built during the Civil War with the aim of protecting the population from areal bombardment. The shelter was excavated by a civilian committee in the Poble Sec neighbourhood.

The shelter comprises 3 entrances, each leading onto Nou de la Rambla with about 400 metres of tunnels of height 2.1 metres and widths ranging from 1.5 and 2 metres. The shelter could take up to 2000 residents who were sat on benches along the walls of the tunnels. The shelter had several auxiliary rooms such as small toilet cubicles, a natural spring for drinking water, A nursery room and a first aid room for treating minor shrapnel wounds (the most common injury). The shelter was linked into the electricity grid and sewer systems and also had a backup diesel generator with 8 hours of autonomy.

This shelter is much larger than the Gracia Shelter below Plaza de Diamant.

Today this shelter is only one of two that survive and are open to the public. This shelter is run by the Museums Historics de Barcelona and offers guided visits on Sunday's

Places are limited so it is best to book the tickets via the MUHBA website.

Poble Sec Refugi307 Air raid shelter guided visit hours

Sundays: English 10:30h, Spanish 11:30h and Catalan 12:30h

Nearest Metro is Parallel on the Green (L3) Line.