The mural by Gastón Castelló and restored by the City Council will be exhibited on one of the facades of Museu Boca del Calvari

The mural by the artist Gastón Castelló restored by Benidorm City Council will be placed on one of the facades of Museu Boca del Calvari, as reported by the Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer. Specifically, it will do so on the façade located on Tomás Ortuño Street, over the main access door to the museum.

Pellicer explained that "in a few weeks this 15-square-meter piece of important heritage value will be exhibited again in our city and will also do so at a point located a few meters from what was its original location: our Municipal Market." Gastón Castelló's mosaic was in the Mercat until 2003 when it was removed due to the remodeling of the facilities.

"Twenty years later and after a careful restoration process," he explained, "this artistic piece by Gastón Castelló with a marine theme and which talks about our past and links with the sea will once again be available to the public, at street level, in one of the neuralgic points of the city”.

The councillor indicated that "a local company is going to be in charge of placing the mosaic on the façade." The entire installation process "will be supervised by the professional who has restored the mosaic, Rafael Ramos, the same person who was in charge of removing it from the Mercat 20 years ago and preparing it for storage and conservation."

An installation, Pellicer specified, "will be relatively quick, since once all the necessary structure and elements are in place, it can be carried out in just three or four days since during the restoration the mural was arranged in eight individual plates to facilitate assembly.

The Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage recalled that "this mural is the second by Gastón Castelló that the City Council recovers and exhibits". Thus, the city also has in its heritage another mural entitled 'Las Artes', originally installed in Almacenes Zaragoza on Tomás Ortuño Street. This piece, which was ceded to the City Council and has been located since 2001 in the entrance hall of the Central Library.

To 'Las Artes' will be added the recovered one now, with a marine theme and in which Benidorm is one more leading character. The composition shows two people working with nets in front of several fishing boats, in one of which a third person is doing set-up work. This episode takes place in the port, with the point of Canfali and the old town of Benidorm at one end and the island at the other.

How the restoration process was

As explained at the time, the first step in the restoration of Gastón Castelló was mechanical cleaning and a vacuum cleaner of the remains lodged between the tiles and the cloth on which it was deposited when it was removed two decades ago. After placing the detached tesserae, the missing pieces were manufactured, using the same or similar materials and rectifying colors and textures so that they are like the originals.

Subsequently, the honeycomb sheets on which the mosaic rests were made to measure. These sheets have been glued onto the back of the mosaic to turn it over and remove the protective cloth that was placed during removal two decades ago.

The City Council allocated nearly 15,000 euros to this action carried out by Rafael Ramos, a professional with a long career and highly recognized in the field of mosaic restoration, having passed through his hands, for example, compositions of more than 2,000 years from the Roman site La Alcudia in Elche.