In the heart of Retiro Park, under the surface and near the Puerta de la Reina Mercedes, hides one of the most unknown historical spaces in Madrid: the air raid shelter built during the Civil War. This subway gallery, completed in 1938, was designed to protect 275 people from the aerial bombardments that ravaged the city, becoming an authentic work of engineering of the time, although it was never used as a shelter.
Now the space that remained closed since 1938 is news because the mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, visited it last Tuesday, July 1. After checking the good condition of the sub way galleries built to protect the people of Madrid, but which mostly served as a warehouse, the City Council is studying the possibility of opening it to the public.
A glimmer of the Civil War in Madrid
The shelter has five vaulted galleries, excavated eight meters deep and with a total length of 135 meters. Its corridors, a little more than a meter wide and with heights varying between 1.60 and 2.50 meters, are built in brick and cement, with a concrete floor and original ventilation shafts. The access is made through 45 steps, and in its interior there are still preserved details such as the brick recesses where the wooden seats were embedded, as well as latrines and an old infirmary.
After the war, the shelter was closed and used for the cultivation of mushrooms and as a municipal warehouse, according to information from the City Council, remaining hidden under the park and the asphalt of Menéndez Pelayo Street. Today, its museumization and opening to the public is being studied, with the aim of giving value to this historical “treasure” and allowing the people of Madrid to get to know closely one of the most unique testimonies of the civil defense during the Spanish Civil War.