Refugi 307

Historic · Poble-sec (Sants-Montjuïc)Barcelona,Spain

Four hundred metres of tunnel a Barcelona neighbourhood dug and paid for itself in 1937, with a fountain, an infirmary and a room for children.

Refugi 307 is four hundred metres of tunnel that a neighbourhood dug for itself. From 1937 the residents of Poble-sec cut into the soft rock at the foot of Montjuïc with hand tools, paying for the work out of their own pockets. The passage is a metre and a half wide and two metres high, cold, narrow and uneven underfoot. It was one of more than thirteen hundred shelters recorded across Barcelona, and the raids it was dug against came from airfields on Mallorca, nearly two hundred of them. What makes this one worth going into is the fittings. It has a water fountain, a lavatory, an infirmary, a fireplace, and a room set aside for children. People expected to spend hours down here, repeatedly, so they built somewhere that could hold a family rather than a hole to run to. The walls are curved rather than square, because a rounded section spreads a shock wave instead of concentrating it. The visit goes at the pace of the group in front of you.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Places are limited and go in advance — visits run on a small number of days, in fixed groups and fixed languages, so this is not a stop you can add to a walk on the spot.
Judge the space honestly first — the passage is about a metre and a half wide with a low ceiling and an uneven floor, and there is no shortcut out once the group is inside.
It is cold in there in August — the tunnel holds the temperature of the rock all year, so take a layer even when the street outside is at its hottest.
The door gives nothing away — the entrance is an ordinary opening in a row of buildings on Nou de la Rambla, with no facade and almost no sign, and people walk past the meeting point.

Things to do

1
Put a hand on the tunnel wall
Early in the visit, stop and touch the side of the passage. In some stretches you can feel the tool marks left by whoever cut it, and the plaster skin applied later stops and starts. The rough sections are where the digging was still going on when the war ended.
2
Stand in the children's room and listen
Ask the guide to stop in the widened chamber and stay quiet for a few seconds. Sound behaves oddly: voices from further along the tunnel arrive clearly while the street a few metres above you is completely inaudible. That silence is what people came down here for.