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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Air‑raid shelters: civil war heritage in Valencia city

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Memorial sites are an interesting part of the wide range of Spanish Civil War heritage. The city of Valencia preserves a large number of vestiges of that time, among them, more than three hundred air‑raid shelters. In this article we consider these bomb shelters, taking into account the new circumstances relating to this heritage, starting in 2017, when new legislative and management scenarios were set in motion. The approval of the Valencian Autonomous Community Law for Democratic Memory and Coexistence, a recent modification of the Valencian Cultural Heritage Act which expressly highlights civil war heritage, as well as unprecedented activity by the Valencia City Council regarding its preservation and restoration, offers us a framework for reflection which allows us to objectively assess the patrimonial value of air‑raid shelters, as well as the difficulties involved in their management.