The rehabilitation and enhancement works of the air-raid shelter, located under the Plaza de Cervantes, have concluded. The main objective of this intervention, carried out over the last year, is to make the space visitable and turn it into a place of historical interest.
The Councilor for Historical Heritage, Vicente Pérez, detailed that the intervention included the integral rehabilitation of the shelter, the installation of a forced ventilation system to control humidity, new lighting, and a complete cleaning of the space. Original elements such as porcelain insulators and wooden structures dating back to 1938 have been restored, thus preserving part of its original configuration.
Furthermore, the ashlar stones and floor slabs have been cleaned, and wells previously dug to control the groundwater level have been sealed. The shelter, measuring 38 meters in length, features a design of rooms connected at right angles, conceived to minimize damage in case of an explosion and protect its occupants. Its route extends towards the northern area of the Plaza de Cervantes, near the beginning of calle Mayor.
Pérez reported that current efforts are focused on the musealization of the space, with the aim of opening the shelter in the coming months for both technical visits and guided tours for the general public.
The discovery of this shelter, built in 1938 during the Civil War, occurred after excavations in November 2023. Until then, only a sketch and an aerial photograph indicating its location in the northern part of the square were available. During the excavations, the shelter's rooms were found, which reused ashlar stones from the church of Santa María, burned down and demolished in July 1936.
