In 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War, Alfredo Kindelán, the Francoist air force chief, received a strange letter while stationed in Salamanca. In it, a wealthy Catalan man begged him to drop bombs on his own house in Barcelona, ​​providing all the necessary information to ensure the attack, including the exact location and several photographs of the property. The story is so bizarre that it requires some digging to unravel the mystery. The sender was Josep Gallart Folch, the son of a wealthy man who had made his fortune in Puerto Rico. The mansion in question was the Palau de les Heures, which still stands today amidst a wooded area in Vall d'Hebron and is managed by the University of Barcelona. Gallart's self-destructive impulse stemmed from the confiscation of the palace by Republican authorities during the war, and also from the fact that it served as a temporary residence for President Companys. Luckily, no bomb ever fell on the property and we can still enjoy it today.