There are many passers-by who try to peek through the fabrics that cover the excavation. There, just a couple of meters from where the curious eye can see, a team of archaeologists strives to document as much as possible the largest air raid shelter in Alcalá de Henares.
The last discovery was the entrance wall. Beyond that, the experts have found a completely open space and in perfect condition that they will have to document, reports Efe.
Built between 1937 and 1938 so that citizens could take shelter from the bombings that devastated the city during the Civil War, there are many secrets that it embodies: the stones of the baptismal font of Miguel de Cervantes, the most famous resident of the city, were used for its construction.
Until just a few days ago, no one knew exactly the location of the entrance to this shelter. The memory of the people of Alcalá even placed it in another part of the central Plaza Cervantes, but the archaeologists were right when they dug into the ground.
“As José García Saldaña, who was a chronicler of Alcalá, wrote, the shelter was finished in the final phase of the war,” says Vicente Pérez Palomar, Councilor for Historical Heritage in the Complutense city.
For her part, the historian Pilar Lledó Collada wrote in her book “Alcalá en Guerra” that the shelter was completed on October 16, 1938.
García Saldaña also left a graphic document: he made a sketch of the shelter and published it along with some annotations in 1994, in “El Puerta de Madrid”, a veteran local media.
However, the greatest graphic document that has helped experts to determine the entrance to the shelter comes from an overhead photograph that the Condor Legion took of the city at the end of 1938 or beginning of 1939 and which was discovered by researcher Julián Dueñas. , as pointed out by Luis A. Ruiz, co-director of the project and archaeologist.
This shelter was the largest in the entire city, where there were more than 60 enclaves of this type. According to what was said at the time, it had a capacity for a thousand people.
Ruiz, for his part, adds that the construction of the shelter began in March 1937: “He had to face many economic problems because, in theory, the shelters were financed by the population of each city.”
In this way, Alcalá decided to record theatrical shows and some alcoholic beverages through quotas and taxes, but it was not enough. Furthermore, it was not easy to obtain raw materials such as cement and rebar, which were highly valued during wartime.
“The works were completed thanks to a donation from Manuel Azaña, who was born in the city and at that time was president of the Republic. He contributed about 25,000 pesetas, almost a quarter of what the shelter cost,” notes the archaeologist.
For the moment, the excavation has brought to light a staircase “very well made of bricks”, and the walls that support it made of perfectly cut limestone ashlars. The ashlars come from the old Church of Santa María, burned on July 29, 1936.
For the archaeologist, this fact reaffirms the dynamic established in Alcalá for 2,000 years: using the remains of destroyed emblematic buildings to build others, that is, converting them into a quarry.
In that same Church was located the original baptismal font of Miguel de Cervantes, of which now only a few small fragments are preserved, displayed in a reproduction. “The pile was also shattered, so this excavation not only tells us about the year 37 and 38 of the last century, but also about Cervantes,” the archaeologist reiterates.
Researchers have come across a boarded-up door, probably in 1978, when a major renovation was carried out in the square. “We have discovered a date written in blue paint and it coincides with that year,” adds Ruiz.
From that stage are the few remains that they found at the beginning of their intervention. Most of them date between the 70s and 90s. “There are numerous candy wrappers and ice cream spoons, for example,” illustrates the researcher. As for the coins, the oldest one that has appeared dates back to the 1960s.
The period material, from the first half of the 20th century, focuses on the discovery of ceramic remains and a bottle of González Byass sherry, characteristic of that time.
On the other hand, reality changes once you enter the shelter, since inside it there are still light bulb covers, cans of food, and electric differentiators, as well as a shelf that is still in the same place as it was almost a century ago. The vents are still pristine, although full of dirt.
The future of the enclave is an enigma. Councilor José Vicente Pérez Palomar prefers to wait to give more details on this aspect, but leaves any possibility open: “That the shelter is in perfect condition will allow us to better understand the past of our city,” he comments.
Now, specialists will document what they find and carry out a complete survey “in order to locate each of the elements such as vents, another access door or the lighting system.” Once seen, its possible enhancement and museumization will be evaluated, the councilor added.
The co-director of the intervention also maintains that it is difficult to make predictions, but he does have some hope that it can become a visitable space.
For now, he and the other archaeologists will continue scraping, chipping and documenting everything they find underground until almost the end of the year.
