In the center of Benidorm there will be photographs that will recall the recent history of the city

The campaign ‘A pie de calle’, promoted by Benidorm City Council, the Neighborhood Council and the neighborhood associations, has resumed its activities and visits to the neighborhoods of the City today.

The Councilor for Citizen Participation, Ana Pellicer, and the person in charge of Public Space, José Ramón González de Zárate, have toured the Old Town together with the vice-presidents of the Neighborhood Council, Teresa Garrido and Manuel Sánchez Notario; the president of the neighborhood association, Pepa Orozco, and members of other neighborhood groups. They have visited the first of the historical photographs that will begin to settle little by little throughout the city, on Metge street and in Cosme Bayona.

Ana Pellicer has shown the image to the neighbors, "a photograph - she has said - of the Municipal Archive made by Quico Pérez Bayona that reflects the difference between 1962 and this year". That allows you to discover the evolution of the road, its buildings and the changes caused by progress and time. The images that will be placed "will appear next to a QR code" with which, in addition to the location, it will be possible to learn "a bit of the history" of Benidorm "and the reason for this campaign."

The person in charge of Historical Heritage has announced the sending of communications to the residents' associations so that "those who are interested" can give up a space on their private façade "for the placement of photographs." Likewise, the councilor has invited any neighbor "who has an unpublished image of a special street" to lend it for scanning, filing and use in the panels. The originals will be returned to their owners.

It is a "very educational and very fun way - Pellicer has deepened - to show what our city was like years ago" to children, or to tourists who see in these photographs reflected how it was "and what it has become, the Benidorm of today".

The Old Town and also La Creu

Those of the historic center are not the first images of our recent past that residents or visitors of Benidorm will be able to enjoy. Just a few days ago, two totem poles with snapshots of the ascent of the first cross in 1961, were installed in the surroundings of La Creu. On this occasion, the photographs are accompanied by an explanation of what that action meant and gave name to one of the most emblematic and visited places in the city.

Business posters are moved away

For his part, the Councilor for Public Space has informed the residents of the withdrawal by the Municipal Technical Services of a good number of old obsolete and disused posters and labels. They belonged "to businesses or establishments that had closed or changed ownership," González de Zárate emphasized. "A supermarket that is now a restaurant, or a restaurant that was previously a hairdresser and those signs were still on public roads."

"A major cleaning" has been done on all of them. Even so, during the tour one has been detected that has been dismantled early in the afternoon today.

The removed labels have been transferred to Heritage department in the City Council so that there, they can be cataloged and store them, with an eye toward holding “an exhibition, or putting them somewhere” because they are “living history of Benidorm”.

González de Zárate has made an appeal to the neighborhood groups of the city, not only those of the old town, to place this type of advertisement so that the City Council can study what to do with them. Especially the abandoned ones that could be dangerous because they could “fall off the facades and hurt passers-by”. Thus, the councillor has stressed that above all the main objective of this initiative is to "preserve the history" of the city.