THE National Historical Archive of Spain has released its ‘document of the month’ detailing the design for Almeria war shelters in the Spanish Civil War.
The delegate for Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Junta de Andalucia, Alfredo Valdivia, presented the Provincial Historical Archive of Almería with the plans for the underground shelter in the neighbourhood of Pescadería. They were created in 1938 by the engineer Eusebio Elorrieta and Artaza at the request of the Board of Works of the Port of Almeria.
Valdivia was accompanied by the director of the Archive, María Luisa Andrés and by Contemporary History and Civil War and Francoist repression expert, Eusebio Rodríguez Padilla, at a presentation for the historical item.
On the 80th anniversary of the Nazi bombardment of Almeria, the culture delegate said: “they did not want to pass up the opportunity to present a document that includes the construction of one of the main forms of defence that the inhabitants of the city had in the face of these bombings, the underground shelters.”
The Pescaderia shelter project was to protect the workers and employees of the Port Works Board and the fishermen who lived in this neighbourhood who fulfilled an essential mission in the war. Supplies of fish, not only to the Almerian population but also to the military front at a time when it was very difficult to obtain food to feed the population and the Republican army.
