The Alcalá de Henares Town Hall has finished the works on the Civil War shelter and is already preparing its musealisation for visits.
The air raid shelter in Plaza de Cervantes, Alcalá de Henares, has been rehabilitated. The Town Hall has announced the completion of the enhancement works for this space built in 1938, during the Civil War, which remained hidden for decades.
The intervention, which has lasted over the past year, included the comprehensive rehabilitation of the shelter, the installation of a forced ventilation system to eliminate humidity, new lighting, and a complete cleaning of the space. Original elements such as the porcelain knobs of the electrical system and wooden structures dated 1938 have also been restored, as explained by the Councillor for Historical Heritage, Vicente Pérez.
Additionally, the cleaning of the stone blocks and the ceilings has been carried out, as well as the sealing of wells that had been created in the past to control the groundwater level. The shelter, measuring 38 meters in length, consists of a series of rooms connected by right-angle turns, a design intended to minimise damage in the event of an explosion.
Its route extends approximately to the northern area of Plaza de Cervantes, at the beginning of Calle Mayor. The discovery occurred in November 2023 during excavations, and until then, there was only a sketch published by José García Saldaña and an aerial photograph that evidenced its position in the northern quadrant of the square, with two access points.
The works are now focused on the musealisation of the space, with the aim of opening it in the coming months for both technical visits and guided tours aimed at the general public, as the councillor has indicated. The stone blocks used in its construction come from the church of Santa María, which was burned on July 29, 1936, and subsequently demolished to reuse the materials.
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