The University of Barcelona has documented the impacts of the bombardment suffered by a pavilion of the old Flix chloratite explosives factory (Tarragona) in February 1937, during the Civil War.
The UB has carried out this summer the third excavation campaign in the explosives workshop located within the Sebes Nature Reserve.
Eight archeology students from the UB, as well as the director and a technician, have worked in this unique space in Spain that was in use until the outbreak of the war.
The director of the excavation, Jordi Ramos, assures that it serves as a "learning field" for the students. For the teacher it is important that the students "learn how an archaeological intervention of contemporary times is carried out".
With the military uprising, the factory passed into the hands of the Generalitat War Industries Commission and began to manufacture ammonium nitrate and chloratite.
Ramos comments that the factory became a military objective and the Council of War controlled the production of weapons to be used on the front.
With this excavation, archaeologists can document the structures, since it is a type of factory that was not common. In fact, that of Flix, is the only one in the State that is maintained in its entirety.
The university also studies what the "living conditions" were like in this industry, what the working day was like and the organization of the space.
The factory had a short life. It started working in 1923, and after the bombings of 1937, the following year, it stopped producing explosives. During the Civil War, security embankments between warehouses served as bomb shelters.
The facilities "have suffered deterioration," says Ramos. It should also be noted that over the past century, the space was occupied several times.
There are still factory sites to be excavated, for example the powder magazine. The archaeologists from the UB have yet to enable two entrances to the powder magazine and an anteroom. "There are many clays and silts due to the floods that this space has suffered," says the professor. However, Ramos acknowledges that all the work is "quite advanced", especially the documentation work.
The UB will carry out a fourth campaign next year, and from there, they hope that a museumization project will be carried out. Ramos has already offered his support to both the Flix City Council and the factory owners to carry it out.
