Benidorm asks the Provincial Council a grant to to make works in l'Hort de Colón

Benidorm City Council has requested a subsidy from Alicante Provincial Council to act in l'Hort de Colón and thus be able to recover the full use of the property. The Local Government Board, at the proposal of the councillor for Historical Heritage, Ana Pellicer, approved last week to participate in the call for the Provincial Plan for the rehabilitation and enhancement of the municipal historical architectural heritage of towns with less than 75,000 rooms. A call to which the City Council has also attended with the rehabilitation project of the Torre de Morales.

Pellicer has reported that "the bases of this Provincial Plan establish that the municipalities of the population of Benidorm can receive a subsidy of up to 70% of the cost of the project, which in the case of l'Hort de Colón is around 295,000 euros". In this way, the City Council could obtain a maximum aid of just over 206,000 euros.

The project proposes to act on the forging of the first floor of the building, reform the bathroom on the ground floor, fix the façade by eliminating possible dampness and replace the glass skylight of the house and the electrical mechanisms, and switches and power outlets.

The councillor explained that "although the project includes several actions, the most important is the one that affects the forging of the first floor." Specifically, it is proposed to replace the joists of this floor with new ones also made of wood, thus ensuring the stability of the first floor. Pellicer clarified that "we wanted this action to be as respectful as possible of the original elements of this house from the end of the 19th century, and for this reason, most of the pavement will be lifted and recovered, which requires manual work that, although it is more expensive guarantees us to be able to reuse the ceramic floor”.

The person in charge of Historical Heritage has stressed that "this action on the floor is essential since it is what will allow us to reuse the first floor of l'Hort de Colón and, with it, reactivate some cultural activities that in the last quarter of 2019 we had to suspend due to the technical recommendation not to use the rooms and spaces on the upper floor”.

At this point, he recalled that "since its incorporation into the municipal heritage, l'Hort de Colón has been a cultural meeting point, hosting countless artistic and recreational activities such as concerts, micro theatre festivals, children's workshops and exhibitions, among others".

"Most of the activities -she has specified- have continued to be carried out without any problem since they are carried out in the garden and the arcaded area of ​​the house, but it is important that we can recover those that we had to do without". For example, the guided and dramatized visits which, based on the house and the pieces and objects bequeathed by the family that owned l'Hort and other individuals, an ethnological and historical tour of Benidorm at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries”.

The mayor has remarked that "in addition to its heritage value for being an example of traditional rural construction at the end of the 19th century", l'Hort de Colón "has an undoubted sentimental value for the people of Benidorm" and "hence the great interest of the City Council for investing in the improvement of this building so that the citizens can fully enjoy it”.