The Bunkers del Carmel anti-aircraft battery | Barcelona

At the top of the Turó de la Rovira, in the El Carmel neighbourhood, stand the remains of a Spanish Civil War anti-aircraft bunker built in 1937.

Remains of the rotating platforms, small tunnels and covered spaces, plants, rocks, rubbish and graffiti made up the scenery of the Carmel bunker which, together with the Sant Pere Màrtir bunker, was a base for the defence of the city of Barcelona.

During the Civil War Barcelona was systematically bombed by the fascists, which is why these defences were built on the city’s high vantage points. There were four guns at the Carmel bunker, removed during the 1950s.

The most striking thing about this place is that from the edge of the roof of the Carmel (or Turó de la Rovira) bunker, like a platform built to show off the city, we can enjoy a unique 360-degree panoramic view of Barcelona.

Hundreds of shacks once crowded around the bunker, housing the construction workers who were building the big city, as one of their residents tells us. At one point there were more than 400 of them, and in time they managed to get electricity and water so people could live in conditions that were at least halfway decent. Some of the little houses you can still see around the area today started life as the shacks that once crowned the Turó de la Rovira.

The area is about to be redeveloped. I hope they manage to keep the ‘wildest’ side of the place.

Update, May 2013: the area has now been redeveloped and has ended up rather faded and a lot less wild for those of us lucky enough to have seen it covered in graffiti. That said, I have to admit that they’ve opened up access to spots that used to be impossible to reach.

Update, August 2014: work on the Carmel bunker, run by the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat (the city’s history museum), continues until February 2015.

Getting there: bus 28 (get off at the last stop) or bus 119

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