360º View of the City

So, here we are at The Bunkers, a site which offers one of the very best views of the city.

Don't forget your camera. 

There was a time, not so very long ago, that you could come up here and be alone with your thoughts, or enjoy a picnic with friends or family as you soaked up the views. Not any more. Today there’s hardly an hour of the day or night when there isn’t at least two dozen or more intrepid visitors sharing this intriguing place — at various times a military installation, an uncharted, unofficial village, a party hangout, and music video location.

Recent infrastructure improvements have greatly improved access to the site — now managed by the City's Museums Service. Interestingly, it is a site which is visited equally by both residents and visitors. 

Now, on a sunny day, it's not unusual to find as many as 300 people inspecting the vestiges of a settlement that was known as Los Cañones (Els Canons in català).

Italian bomber

Some History

So, why is what you see, the remnants of an anti-aircraft battery, here?

In July 1936 a cabal of army generals led by General José Sanjurjo, and co-ordinated by General Emilio Mola, rose up against the democratically elected government of the Republic of Spain.

The seditious Spanish generals were supported by Hitler and Mussolini, both of whom supplied the rebel army with arms, transport and aircraft.

Nazi aircraft transported more than 2,500 rebel troops from Morocco to southern Spain — then the largest military airlift in history.
What began as a military rebellion very soon became a revolution and a civil war.

The people of Barcelona, aided by loyal units of Assault Guards, Civil Guard, Air Force and Army which had refused to join the rebellion, crushed the rebels. SEE Barcelona's Day of Infamy HERE.
 
However, despite local people's victory in Barcelona, within a few months Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks, aircraft, artillery units, ships and submarines based in Spain.

Deadly Experiments

The German and Italian forces used their involvement as an opportunity to experiment with new weapons and tactics.
For example, the Italian navy experimented with submarines and mini-submarines. (Between July 1936 and June 1938, 13 British merchant ships were sunk by Italian, German and rebel Spanish forces. Another 51 were bombed from the air, and five attacked by Italian submarines — and a craven UK National Government, led by Neville Chamberlain, did nothing.)

The Italians and Germans were especially keen to experiment with aircraft. The Italians formed an airforce called the Aviazione Legionaria. From its bases in occupied Mallorca  Aviazione Legionaria bombers launched attacks on dozens of Catalan and Spanish cities and towns.
Their raids were consciously designed to terrorise and demoralise the civilian population — not disrupt economic activity and military production.
Stealth was a key factor of the Italians' tactics. The only warning of attacks came from listening posts — crude devices, like giant ear-trumpets (see photo above).
Knowing this the Italian bomber crews would approach the city at high altitude, turn off their engines before reaching the coast, and glide in on their targets, only re-starting their engines after releasing their payload. Most locals' warning of a raid only came after hearing the first explosion.

While the Barcelona government was slow to react local people organised the building of 1,400 air-raid shelters across the city (two of which are now open to the public: SEE LINKS below). The work was paid for by local subscription, not local taxes.

Finally, in 1937, the government ordered the building of 4 anti-aircraft batteries to defend the city. The anti-aircraft battery here, on Turó de la Rovira, became operational in March, 1938 — too late to avert the worst impacts of the Italian bombing campaign.

The government's air defence efforts were too light, too little and too late. During the course of the war only one enemy plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Barcelona.

Bomb damage in Poble Sec Barcelona

Tragedy

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Barcelona suffered a total of 194 aerial and naval bombardments during the course of the war.
The Italian Aviazione Legionaria launched 72 air-raids against Barcelona.

The most notorious Italian raid took place on January 30th, 1938: 

At 9.05am six Savoia S-79 bombers attacked the city centre. At least one bomb fell on the small square, Plaça Sant Felip Neri in Barri Gòtic. The square was filled with schoolchildren, many of whom were orphaned refugees from Spain. Two hours later bombers returned to bomb the square again while rescuers were pulling wounded and dead children from the rubble; 42 people, 30 of them children, were killed.
Having found that the city had no aerial defences and no anti-aircraft batteries the Italians stepped up the number of attacks, culminating with a fierce onslaught in March, 1938.

Over the course of 41 hours between March 16th and March 18th, the Italians attacked the city centre 19 times, completely destroying 76 buildings, and killing more than 1,000 people.

Before calling a halt to these terror attacks because of international condemnation, the Italian Air Force dropped 1,352 bombs on the city causing 2,096 deaths, the destruction of 930 homes, leaving 4,568 people seriously wounded, and several hundred people homeless.