Refugi 307
Refugi 307
Refugi 307
A PROTECTIVE TUNNEL FOR THE POPULATION
This sight is a set of tunnels built underneath Barcelona during the civil war in 1937. After the war, it was used to provide shelter to poor migrant families.
The 30-minute tour will take you through area 307’s web of tunnels, giving you an insight into bathrooms, infirmaries, and other rooms, and a better idea of how some people had to live in those days.
My Rating:
The positives:
A real contrast to the usual sights in Barcelona! Also suitable for children. The history of the Refugis is interesting and epitomizes the incisive period of the Spanish Civil War.
The negatives:
There is not much to see, and the visit is short. It's rather something for people who have visited Barcelona more than one or two times.
Tip:
After visiting Refugis 307 one can take a path up to Montjuïc. A bit of wilderness in the middle of Barcelona! The path through the forest leads up to Avinguda Miramar, from where you can easily walk to Fundació Miró or take the cable car up to Castell de Montjuïc and enjoy the unique view over the whole of Barcelona.
Last Modified: 07.09.2023 | Céline & Jacqueline
Refugi 307
Tickets
The details
at a glance
Guided Tours
The refuge cannot be visited without a guide.
Sunday:
Guided tours at 10.30 & 11.00 a.m. (English),
11.30 a.m. – 12.00 p.m. (Spanish) and
12.30 p.m. – 1.00 p.m. (Catalan).
Duration: approx. 30 minutes
Monday to Saturday: groups with reservations only, call +34 93 256 21 22 or email reservesmuhba@bcn.cat
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Barcelona Card
Free admission with the Barcelona Card.
Available for 3, 4 or 5 days.
-> More about the Barcelona Card
Refugi 307
Photo Gallery
What is there
to see?
The “Refugi 307” (Catalan for refuge) is one of over a thousand shelter tunnel systems built and used in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. These were numbered consecutively, so this is number 307.
Today, you can only visit one other of these shelters, the one at Plaça de Diamant in the Gràcia district.
The Turó de la Rovira, on the other hand, located high above Barcelona, was an anti-aircraft base but, like the two tunnels, is one of the historic sites of the Civil War.
Refugi 307 is located in the Poble-Sec district, at the foot of Montjuïc hill, from whose quarry the Sagrada Família gets its sandstones.
Standing in front of the entrance, the mountain is literally right in front of you! This is one of the three original entrances, one of which now serves as an exit.
You can only visit the refuge with a guide (English, Spanish, and Catalan tours only). Before you start, you can read the information boards (also in English) in the entrance area until it’s your turn for the guided tour.
When the door to the tunnel opens, you immediately notice that it’s just flat. No stairs? No descent to the bottom? Yes, Refugi 307 is the only shelter tunnel that was simply built straight into the mountain. Normally, in all the other shelters, you had to climb down!
As you walk through the 200 metres of tunnel (with a height of 2.10 metres and a width of between 1.5 and 2 metres), you can easily see the infrastructure: Wardrobe niches, toilets, wells, infirmary, shelters. The chimney, however, was added years after the civil war by families living there!
The house rules were displayed on bright, still easily recognisable boards on the walls. For example, it was forbidden to take food with you, as this might have led to quarrels.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine the place with the people who found refuge here and to comprehend the fears they must have suffered.
Not far from the entrance, you come out of the mountain into the bright daylight again. Even though there is not much to see, it is interesting to look at the subject of Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War through this tunnel.
REFUGI 307
A bit of HISTORY
While aerial bombardment was only used sporadically in the First World War, this war tactic was used regularly for the first time in the Spanish Civil War. Barcelona, for example, was the first major city ever to be bombed from the air in a massive and systematic way.
Air raids were perfect for destroying the war economy. Especially in and around the Poble-Sec neighbourhood, where Refugi 307 is located, there was a lot of industry, and therefore it was all the more affected.
After the first bombings of the city, a local defence committee was convened to take measures to protect the population in the face of this new and deadly phenomenon of war.
The basements of houses and the metro network itself were initially used as shelters. Despite the few resources available, it was often the citizens themselves who organised the defence: Alarm systems were installed, a supply service for food, water, and medicine was set up, and new protective tunnels were built, such as Refugi 307.
The special thing is that these bunkers were not built by the city administration, but by the population itself, especially by women and children who were not in combat.
Franco, the winner of the civil war, initially had the protection system extended, in an attempt to protect the population from a possible entry of Spain into the Second World War. Since this did not happen, Refugi 307 remained unused for many years and later served as a shelter for poor immigrant families.
Today, Refugi 307 is part of the Barcelona City History Museum and is also a monument to the struggle for survival.
What else can you
find on Montjuic Mountain?
You will find a lot of culture on this mountain! Various museums such as the Miro Museum, the MNAC, the Olympic Museum, and the Poble Espanyol, which shows the architecture of Spain in one place, are located here.
But there is Music too! The Palau Sant Jordi is located here. They host big concerts such as Coldplay, Madonna or U2.
To get to Montjuic, you can take the cable car from the port, the Funicular from Paral.lel station or walk. To get to the top – to the Castell de Montjuic – you can either walk or take the Teleferic, another gondola.
Official website of Refugi 307 (EN): ajuntament.barcelona.cat/museuhistoria
Text and image rights: © Céline Mülich, 2020 – 2023
With the support of Jacqueline Glarner
