Bombas Gens Centre d'Art occupies a former hydraulic pump factory built in 1909 on the Carrer de Pere IV in the L'Olivereta district — a neighbourhood that was industrial until recently and is still finding its new identity. The building, designed by the engineer Primitivo Navarro, was in continuous industrial use until 1963; the factory complex was acquired by the Fundació Per Amor a l'Art and restored between 2012 and 2017. The restoration preserved the original industrial structure — brick vaulting, cast iron columns, saw-tooth roof lights — while inserting a contemporary art programme within it. The basement contains a Republican-era air raid shelter, intact from the Civil War bombing raids of 1937, which is accessible to visitors and represents one of the most complete surviving examples of domestic civil defence infrastructure in Spain. The collection focuses on avant-garde work from the 1920s to the 1980s alongside contemporary acquisitions. The building is best in morning light, when the sawtooth rooflights produce a quality of diffuse northern illumination that the industrial architects designed for optical instruments rather than paintings.
L'Olivereta, Valencia, Spain