Catalonia is a land of bombs.
Many were suffered by its population, and many others wait buried in the mud of the Ebro River, or under a false roof of a monastery of cloistered nuns waiting for a chance to bring them to light.
The Mossos' artificers, the Tedax, have drawn up a map with a dozen episodes in the last 20 years that explain the history of a country that has suffered the wars of succession, the war of independence, the Carlist wars and a war civil.
“Between 10 and 20% of the unexploded devices that were launched in the Civil War did not work and some of them are distributed throughout the territory,” explains the Catalan police.
In the last decade, the Tedax have intervened in total 8,273 devices.
Among these, 100 aviation bombs, 2,010 hand grenades, 3,491 mortar grenades, 26 rifle grenades, 237 fuses, 189 rockets, 6 mines or 237 fuses.
“The majority of powers that fought in the Second World War tested weapons and techniques during the Spanish Civil War,” added Tedax Deputy Chief Sergeant Gustau Aparisi.
Almost always, a chance stumble is what has put the police after the explosives.
The oldest ones in the Mossos files date back to 2001, when a fisherman in Roses (Alt Empordà) came across an underwater gold mine from the Second World War.
The man dragged her in his fishing net to the port.
And there he left her.
When he returned by motorcycle to show it to his girlfriend, he found the place cordoned off by the Mossos.
In recent years, the Catalan police have destroyed fifteen orinque mines.
“The Mediterranean current takes them to the Bay of Roses and the Cala Montjoi area,” detailed the sergeant.
An agent of the Mossos bomb squad, the TEDAX.mossos
On another occasion, police found bombs in the foundation of their own facility.
It happened in 2006, when the Mossos police station was being built in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Vallès Occidental).
Three German Luftwaffe aircraft bombs were found.
“The Condor legion operated on the Franco side.
It is a material that was tested here, like the bombing techniques of the civilian population,” the sergeant said at a press conference.
In the foundations of the police station they found 250 kilos of devices, with an explosive charge of 130.
“We are surrounded by history,” continued the sergeant, who also highlighted the old castle of Sant Julià de Ramis (Gironès).
In a hiding place, which they assume they left abandoned, they found 104 artillery projectiles, and more than 1,000 kilos of gunpowder, which they found in 2012, when the place was being rehabilitated.
Just like in the rectory of the old Sallent church, which was taken over by the CNT and used as the organization's premises.
In some works in 2017, they found 445 hand grenades, 7.6 kg of dynamite, and 2,000 cartridges under a false wall.
“Many soldiers who were retreating threw their weapons into torrents or benches to free up weight,” said the archivist of Sant Just Desvern (Baix Llobregat), Jordi Amigó, at the same press conference.
And many did so near the border, before the “gendarmes found their weapons,” which explains why not all the finds are in former combat zones.
“The case of Camprodon, Coll d'Ares or Molló is well known,” he indicated about the Ripollès towns.
Or Agullana (Alt Empordà), where the Tedax found a farmhouse destroyed during the war, where a customs agent lived, who actually worked for the Republic, and owned a powder magazine that was destroyed.
From that blasting, 1,000 “living” artifacts remained, which required an archaeological excavation to find them.
“Agullana was the last seat of the Government of the Republic.
Lluís Companys, [Juan] Negrín, and the Lehendakari [José Antonio] Aguirre lived there,” recalled the Catalan police sergeant.
The Tedax seize explosive material in one of their interventions.
mossos
The most important underwater discovery speaks of the Battle of the Ebro. In the mud of the river, searching for a tourist who disappeared in 2015, the agents found projectiles launched by German and Italian aviation.
The thesis is that a truck was crossing the river, was knocked down, and they managed to recover it, but part of the material it was carrying stayed there, according to what they said this Tuesday.
One of the most curious cases is that of some cloistered nuns, in Vic (Osona), who also had to break the vow of silence.
At least one of them, when in the renovation of his cell in 2017 they found 30 kilos of dynamite, 26 hand grenades, 290 detonators, two rifles and 2,232 cartridges, among others.
The nun asked that, if possible, female police officers come to the convent.
The Monastery of Santa Teresa was occupied by anarchist combatants during the Civil War, and later used as a Civil Guard barracks, before returning it to the order of the Discalced Carmelites.
One of the last scares involving explosive material occurred with a family in Castellbisbal (Vallès Occidental), in the month of January.
Hidden behind a false ceiling, they found 12 grenades.
The building has its own history, and during the war it was in the hands of the CNT, and then it became the property of La Falange.
The suspicion is that it was left hidden there and did not appear until the family that originally owned the home sold it.
The Tedax, which currently consists of 57 agents, have also participated in the investigation of the discovery of bodies.
As happened in La Pobla de Massaluca (Terra Alta), where in 2021 they found human remains of a soldier who fell during the Civil War, near explosive material.
Or in Camarasa (La Noguera), in 2009, where remains of combatants were also located near an artifact.
On occasions, they have also helped to map terrain, such as that of an old shooting range in Calbinyà (Alt Urgell), in 2014, where practice was carried out with mortar shells.
The Mossos have also intervened in serious accidents involving collectors due to “overconfidence.”
It happened in the La Noguera region, in Balaguer, in 2009, and also in Térmens, in 2006. In both cases, people were seriously injured.
“Possession of these artifacts is punishable by the penal code, even the dismantled parts.
And also because of the regulations on weapons and explosives,” warns the sergeant, faced with the temptation to accumulate bombs, dynamite or other explosives that also explain the history of a country.
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