The night of February 23, 1937 the pro-Franco air force threw more than 125 bombs on Flix, a municipality of the Ribera d'Ebre located next to the river Ebro. From the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the chemical complex of Flix, which owned among others a factory of explosives of cloratita, it had converted into one military strategic target of the insurgents. The bombing damaged severely the complex, the colony where there were residing the workpeople and part of the old town, killed at least 8 people. This was the reason who led the Town Council of Flix, with the collaboration of the company Saltos y Riegos del Ebro, entrusted then of the construction of a bridge on the river, to construct up to eight air-raid shelters to protect the population and the workpeople of the factory .

The most extensive air-raid shelter was enabled under the chemical complex. The barracks of the Civil Guard also had his air-raid shelter, whereas in the old town five more were constructed with the target to protect civil population. After that february, Flix population used the air-raid shelters in numerous occasions up to the beginning of the battle of the Ebro. From then, the bombings over Flix were intensified since the town was provided with a second military objective, one iron bridge installed on July 30th, 1938 to transport part of the heavy armament of the Army of the Ebro to the frontline. Next to the bridge, in the right bank of the river, a last air-raid shelter settled to protect the soldiers in charge of bridges. The attacks left a track of houses in ruins and numerous craters opens by the impact of the projectiles.

Today the condition of the Flix air-raid shelters is diverse. The most complete one, located under the chemical complex, has remained partially covered of water immediately after the construction of the reservoir of Flix, whereas the diverse air-raid shelters of the old town have the access from private courts and suffer problems of moisture. Sant Josep's street air-raid shelter, nevertheless, had an access from the street and his condition was acceptable.

The site was full of debris, paving stones and moisture. It was used without success as wine vault and to harvest mushrooms until the year 2006 when the Town Council of Flix decided to realize the first cleanliness of the historical space to turn it into a tourist assets. Thanks to a grant, the company Rams and Domènech was hired to carry out the rehabilitation.

The air-raid shelter possesses two entries. Originally it was possessing doors of wood and sacks of ground around the entrances to protect population of the impact of the grapeshot. Its length was 50 meters, it had lighting and spaces to accomodate banks of wood or beds for the patients, according to oral sources. Thanks to restore, the site has been illuminated again with a system that imitating an old installation. Also, a dozen panels and cartels explain widely the function and characteristics of the air-raid shelters, the effects of the bombings or the reaction of the civil population. The restore also includes the projection of the audiovisual with numerous images of the bombings over Flix, a beam of the bridge of iron and the exhibition of two bombs, one of which of 250 kilos recovered in the municipality of Flix in 2005 in the course of the works of construction of an irrigation system. It is necessary to add that an incscripción of the epoch still preserves inside air-raid shelter that it is possible to read: " 1937. G. M. (probably the initials of the author), on February 23 bombarded Flix ». To visit the refuge it is necessary to call to the Town Council.

Article of Andreu Caralt published in the Diari of Tarragona 23/11/2008 about the testimony of two neighbors of Flix

'It was chilling '

One of the most explicit panels of the shelter it is the written memory of two neighbors of Flix about the bombing of February, 1937. Antonio Ripoll and Francisco Cervelló reported to Francisco Ramon Visa the horrifying sensations of that night. «About ten o'clock in the night a strong explosion was listened. Lunettes and windows, everything jumped in pieces », told Ripoll. He remembers that later, «suddenly I felt a strong smell of singed meat. They had hurt me in the belly and the arm! ». Cervelló helped Ripoll, badly injured, up to the tunnel of the railroad after having evicted the Blood hospital because of a new bombing. Cervelló recalls that night ""where bombs were raining to heaps as really overwhelming ». Ripoll reached the doctor's house and later transferred to Reus.