Benidorm will experience its second European Archeology Conference this weekend

Benidorm will live this weekend its second experience at the European Archeology Conference, which takes place from June 16 to 18 in more than thirty European countries at the initiative of the French National Institute for Preventive Research (Inrap). As the acting Councilor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer, anticipated months ago, "In this second participation of Benidorm in the conference we repeat with the Tossal de la Cala and broaden the scope to El Castell and the Torre de les Caletes".

During the three days of the conference, there will be guided visits with an archaeologist to the site of Tossal de la Cala. These free visits can be arranged at visitastossal@benidorm.org and will take place every hour between 10:00 and 13:00 and from 17:00 to 19:00 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Pellicer explained that "due to a delay in the completion of the 'castellum' musicalization works, which have been delayed somewhat longer than expected due to the weeks of adverse weather, at the last moment we have had to do without activities that we developed last year at the site itself, such as the workshops for the little ones or the recreation of Roman troops”.

In contrast, "the guided tour of Tossal de la Cala this year provides an 'extra' and unusual experience such as seeing and discovering a living site, which is in the process of being excavated and shown". Thus, at the moment part of the work is focused on the upper part of the site, in the final section that leads to the viewpoint, where access is restricted.

Pellicer recalled that this new phase of musealization includes an archaeological intervention in the surroundings of the main street of the Roman fort, "the first street of Benidorm", and is included within the actions of the Tourism Sustainability Plan 'Benidorm DTI + Seguro'.

There will also be free guided tours of the exhibitions 'Guardianes de Piedra' and 'El Guardian del Mar', both currently on display at the Museu Boca del Calvari. The councillor  recalled that “through the first, we will be able to delve into the defensive systems of the province of Alicante, with a special stop at our Castell; while the second exhibition focuses exclusively on our Torre de les Caletes, cataloged as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) and which takes us into the story of the maritime surveillance of the coast”. In the latter, he pointed out, "you can see the objects and materials found by archaeologists during the consolidation and recovery works on the tower and that has made it possible to reconstruct the history and operation of this 16th-century watchtower."

Guided tours of the exhibitions will be from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and can be arranged at the web link https://forms.gle/SNvb1EBeNDnbQcM96. These visits can be completed with a tour of both properties.