The Bombing of the Temple of El Pilar, Zaragoza, 3 August 1936

In the early morning of 3 August 1936, a Republican plane coming from the airfield in Barcelona bombed the Temple of El Pilar in Zaragoza. The local press reported that four extremely powerful bombs were dropped: one fell into the Ebro River, two landed on the roof of the temple, and one was embedded in the square in front of the church’s main door. None of them exploded, and the two that fell on the temple caused only minor damage. 

The rebel press made clear that this outcome was due to a miracle performed by the Virgel of El Pilar, who protected the temple from Marxist barbarism. It also reported, and subsequent works of history have repeated, that two of the fifty kilogram Hispana A6 bombs were recovered by artillerymen from the Maestranza barracks commanded by Lt. Col. Manuel Cella, who produced a technical analysis. According to a communication from Cella to the cathedral chapter and an acknowledgement from the Dean, these two bombs were restored and donated to the chapter. As the photograph shows, those two supposed bombs, accompanied by an explanatory sign, remain in the temple, exhibited in a pilaster at the entrance to the chapel of the Virgin as a trophy of war and proof of the miracle. 

The most thorough study of the subject completely contradicts what tradition and historiography have affirmed. First of all, the bombs were nota ll the same type, something Teodoro Ríos, the chapter’s architect who went to the scene that same morning to assess the damage and remove the rubble, stated at the time. Second, it uses documents from the military archives to show that there was no such person as Manuel Cella and that the lieutenant colonel of the Maestranza was in fact Manuel Galbis Golf. Third, it shows that the supposed technical analysis was nothing more than an unsigned, published report. As Cella did not exist, he clearly could not have been the author.

With regard to the pilot and the plane, the study finds sufficiennt evidence, especially in the rebel press, to identify the man responsible for the bombing as Emilio Villaceballos García, a young pilot posted to the Prat airfield who flew a Breguet XIX, and that he had undertaken the bombing without orders.

Finally, there is the reason that the bombs did not explode. On the afternoon of 2 August Dr. Tomás Pujol Font, who had served as medical officer at the Canudas airfield, had a conversation with his friend Joaquim Sangenís Vozcerraíz, a mechanic in charge of fuel there. The two men agreed that, in light of the stupidity that Villaceballos said he was going to undertake, to tamper with the detonators on the bombs to be put in his plane so that they would not explode. 

APB