Alcoi. I headed inland on the bus from Alicante having heard that there was a museum set into the old Civil War air raid shelter underneath the Art School. As the weather turned thunderous and the bus headed in through the mountains I had a feeling that this trip might well prove to be something special. The museum in Alcoi has very little coverage on the web and it took the assistance of a local cab driver to find it. I was soon glad I had made the trip. Alcoi was a major industrial centre as well as being a rock-solid Republican stonghold. It was battered by the Italians and their SM79 bombers and only had the most limited of anti-aircraft defences. The museum is extraordinary. It looks like much of the structure has survived the last eighty years intact and has been sympathetically converted into a fine museum which is a tribute to the resilience of the people of the town who took shelter here. From the brilliantly recreated medical bay to the striking exhibitions detailing the assault from the air this is truly a moving place to visit if you get the chance. Towards the end of the Civil War Alcoi was hammered by a ruthless coalition of fascist forces testing out the carpet bombing strategy that would soon be hitting London, Paris and other European cities. Scores of innocent people were killed. The very least that the musuem does is ensure that they will never be forgotten.
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