Ricovero Antiaereo Quintino Sella

The Quintino Sella air-raid shelter in La Spezia is a wartime tunnel adapted in 1942 to protect residents from bombing and restored as a memorial to the city's civilian experience.

Why it matters

La Spezia's naval base and factories made the city a target during the Second World War. More than 150 shelters were dug around the gulf. The Sella complex, serving the Manzoni and Sant'Agostino districts, was designed to accommodate up to 6,500 people, and families spent nights in its galleries during air raids. Its preservation documents the scale of civil defence in the wartime city.

What to notice

The main tunnel is about 210 metres long and six metres wide, with access galleries feeding into it. Original surfaces sit beside structural work added during restoration. An entrance toward Piazza Sant'Agostino exposed remains of the facade of a convent destroyed in bombing. Multimedia interpretation and archival objects recount the raids, including the severe attack of 18 April 1943.

Context and history

The gallery was initially begun as part of a proposed elevator connection between Via XX Settembre and Via XXVII Marzo. In 1942 the city commissioned its conversion into an air-raid shelter. After the war it was abandoned along with many other refuges in the gulf. A heritage restoration carried out from 2021 led to its reopening in 2023, and a later project concerns the former Convent of the Clarisses above the tunnel.