The TEDAX is a security unit that specialises in the deactivation of explosive devices. Recently, a bomb disposal TEDAX team from the Mossos d’Esquadra came to Sitges to remove a missile that had been discovered in an annex room of the Miramar Cultural Centre.
The Catalan police officers had been alerted by the Sitges Local Police, who had already been alerted the previous day by the head of the technical department of the museum, who’d found the artifact in a small adjacent warehouse where odds and ends were often stored. An industrial engineer by profession, the worker immediately realised that the piece looked like a missile and that, for safety’s sake, it was necessary to warn the police immediately.
Within 24 hours, the Mossos TEDAX were there. The agents were able to remove the explosive without complications and then took it to a bunker in Terrassa, where they proceeded to carry out a controlled detonation. The artifact was still loaded, although it no longer had a fuse (the part of the device that initiates a function to detonate the ammunition).
The casing of the missile was engraved with the number 1895 which, according to the Catalan police, was a reliable indication to attribute the date that the explosive was manufactured. That was the year the Cuban War of Independence began, which three years later would cease to be under Spanish rule, but the Catalan police do not have enough evidence to confirm that the projectile had any connection to it. However, due to its size, they believe it could be a naval explosive.
But what was an artifact with these characteristics doing at the Miramar? The only evidence is that someone left it there inside. But who? And when?
The answer is complex. The Mossos specialists themselves assure that the discovery of explosives is more common than it might seem: they are found practically every week, either in outdoor spaces or, as in this case, indoors. In many cases, these are pieces kept by weapons collectors or by people who wanted to keep ammunition as souvenirs (the majority, linked to the Spanish Civil War).
The Catalan police said that often not even the closest family members know anything about it, perhaps due to the danger involved or because it is an illegal practice. Therefore, many discoveries are made when houses are inherited and renovations are carried out. In the case of Sitges, the past of the Miramar Cultural Centre as a hotel adds even more uncertainty to the history of the missile.
Click here to follow Sitges in English on Facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram.
Click here to return to Sitges in English home page. Click here for our full archive of Sitges News reports.
Click here to get your business or services listed on our DIRECTORY.
Don’t miss out on the English section in the weekly L’Eco de Sitges (and Ribes edition). Click here to subscribe and have it delivered to your home each week.
