The flood that devastated the province of Valencia more than two months ago, leaving dire consequences for all the affected municipalities, has also revealed a surprise under the pavements of several houses in the town of Paiporta: the appearance of shelters from the Spanish Civil War that They remained hidden. Given this discovery, specialists advise making a catalog and emphasize the convenience of carrying out structural evaluations, in order to guarantee safety, and analyze, on the other hand, the cultural and historical aspect.
After the ravine that impacted a large part of the province of Valencia, some houses in the old town of Paiporta, located in the ‘ground zero’ of the tragedy, the neighbors have found wells and shelters built during the Civil War and that could connect via underground the Ciutat Vella of the municipality.
This is the case of the central streets Dr. Cajal and Sant Roc. “The dana lifted the ground upwards when everything happened,” some neighbors tell Europa Press Television, who say that in some cases “they knew the shelters were there,” but they had them “covered.”
Now, when it is discovered, “architects have come to analyze” these vestiges, say the inhabitants, who urge the City Council to contact them as soon as possible and to act quickly.
For his part, the director of the University Institute of Heritage Restoration of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Francisco Juan, points out that, although for most it has been a surprise, “reading and researching more, it seems that there was news in Paiporta, especially of the older generations, of the existence of these galleries, of the time of war, even of having used them in childhood.
The expert draws attention to two derivatives of the discovery. Firstly, “the purely structural”. “Obviously, we must evaluate what effect this may have on the structures. The buildings are set on the ground and, in some cases, it would be necessary to study if it may be generating some type of condition, and the fact that there has been a flood and it has been flooded with water, may have affected the structure. Therefore, he stressed, “the first study, the safety study, is the most imminent study.”
“They are part of a memory”
In addition, there is a cultural component, since, today, all the assets linked to the Civil War “are being valued because there is an interest, they are part of a memory, of a historical episode of the country.”
And he added, in statements to Europa Press TV, that, given that knowledge about these shelters is “vague and there are few studies”, it would be a good idea to prepare an inventory, that is, “a record of all of them, see where state they are in, what size they are and if there are any that are easily accessible so that they can be museums or put into value.”
The expert warns that the work is not fast as there are a significant number of properties affected and understands that the neighbors are impatient for the issue to be resolved as soon as possible. In that sense, he recalled the offer of institutions and entities, such as the universities themselves, to collaborate to the extent of their possibilities.
Source: www.eldiario.es
