The Dénia castle tunnel recovers its origins as an air raid shelter
The Dénia Municipal Archive has inaugurated today, December 14, the new signage in the tunnel of the castle to disseminate the history of the refuge since its construction during the Spanish civil war. The event was attended by the mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, the Councilor for Culture, Raúl García de la Reina, and the regional secretariat for Cooperation and Democratic Quality, Toñi Serna Serrano.
The aim sought with the musealization of the tunnel is to publicize the origin of the construction between 1937 and 1938 to shelter the population from the bombings. It is intended to disseminate among the population and visitors, with special emphasis on young people, the symbolism of this Dianense place.
tunnel past
The installation consists of six information panels written in Valencian, Spanish and English, documented and illustrated with photographs and documents from the Archive. At the entrance you can read about the 37 air and sea bombardments, which left 32 victims and hundreds injured. In addition, some QRs have been designed to listen to the explanation in the three languages while visiting the refuge. These codes give the possibility of updating the data and are more accessible to the public; reasons that led to its implementation, according to comments from the Archive.
The rest of the posters, located inside the tunnel, talk about the promotion for the construction of the tunnel, the methodology used and the rest of the shelters that existed in the city and in rural areas.
At the same time, the Archive will distribute informative brochures in schools, the social center, the Tourist Office and other municipal institutions for the general public.
The cost of the project has been 7.393 euros, which has been partially financed by the Ministry of Participation, Transparency and Democratic Quality of the Generalitat Valenciana with 6.197 euros.
Enhancement of memory
The mayor highlighted in his speech the "firm" commitment of the municipal government to historical and democratic memory. On historical memory, he has defended that "any society that calls itself democratic cannot afford not to repair injustice, or stop comforting families, or deny victims the reparation they deserve."
For its part, the regional secretariat has congratulated the initiative within a process to "recognize its own history" which, it says, is being undertaken by a whole network of Valencian municipalities. Serna has highlighted the "enhancement of memory", an act that she has described as beautiful and that she finds far from trying to "open wounds". Both the secretariat and the mayor have celebrated the approval of the National Democratic Memory Law, undertaken this year.
The municipal archivist, Rosa Seser, has given context about the construction through first-person witnesses from citizens of Dénia. She has also talked about the later uses that were given to the tunnel, as a banana store, for example. For Seser, it is essential to signpost and disseminate the origins and history of the refuge to the public.