On 13th February 1937, Barcelona was subjected to the first of the 192 bombing raids by Franco"s army. This attack made the civilian population the unwitting protagonists of the war. The Passive Defence Board was set up in order to tackle the situation and save the lives of the local residents. The first shelters were set up in the basements of houses and in metro stations. However, as the bombings intensified, people joined together to build air-raid shelters.
A convent of Barefoot Augustinians had stood at the end of
Barcelona"s La Rambla since 1626. The present Centre d"Art Santa Mònica is a Renaissance building that had suffered the vicissitudes of the French occupation in 1811, and, after that, it had many different uses that altered its original layout. It was used as a straw warehouse, a gendarmerie, a centre for military operations, etc. In 1984, it was refurbished and converted into an Arts and Culture Centre of Barcelona by the architects
Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana. The centre opened in 1988 and in 2003, Viaplana continued with the refurbishment project, with the opening of a new entrance on the Rambla, a new entrance to the cloister and the creation of a second gallery.
The Museum Marítim is located by the waterfront in one of Barcelona's finest landmark buildings: the
Reials Drassanes, the medieval shipyards which are a unique example of civic Gothic architecture.
