Yesterday, the visits to the archaeological performances in the Castell began

Excellent response of citizens and cultural groups to the campaign of the Department of Historical Heritage to organize visits to the archaeological performances that are being developed at Plaza del Castillo and Mirador de Benidorm.

The project is part of the actions for the stabilization and consolidation of the stratigraphic structure of Punta Canfali and the relevant archaeological prospecting, taking advantage of the action, which has adhered to the FEDER Operational Program 2014-2020 in the recovery section of the Valencian Cultural Heritage with a subsidy of half a million euros.

This aspect was highlighted yesterday afternoon, at the beginning of citizen visits, and it has been done again this morning in the Media visit, the mayor, Toni Pérez, who said that “it was essential to undertake the consolidation of Punta Canfali and, with it, we have made it possible to recover part of our history. ”

The visits began late yesterday and will continue this afternoon, but will continue, given the interest raised and the number of registered in the Department of Historical Heritage, until next Tuesday, August 27, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. by strict order of inscription.

Upon accessing the fenced enclosure - which in the meantime continues in archaeological prospecting works - the Lure Archeology team welcomes the groups and introduces them to the physical and historical context of the 14th century, pointing out the highlights of the intervention that has allowed walls to emerge and also rooms of the old castle, as well as the structure of the walls and the presence of defensive towers to Levante and Poniente, as well as a defensive cube in the southwest of the construction.

The discovery of walls and arrangement of the outcropped rooms will allow a better interpretation of the castle's plan, from the 14th century, and some critical stages of its past that have left its mark on the sedimentary strata, from which samples have been taken to date, through the Carbon-14 method, some of the most prominent episodes.

During the visit, the groups receive explanations of the main elements recovered as well as the vestiges and ceramic remains that have appeared (tableware and kitchenware, dated mainly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), snail shells, remains of terracotta figures and nineteenth-century ammunition, as well as various currencies from different eras located inside the cistern.

This is the only piece of the complex that is not visited due to the difficulty of its access. But archaeologists exhibit photographs of it with the inscriptions of names and dates discovered as well as the areas of hydraulic mortar and original paint that it maintains.

At the end of the visit, those interested can leave their impressions and proposals for the future because the next step is to define the project of musealization and enhancement of the Castle of Benidorm. "The most interesting thing - explains the archeologist Lourdes López to each group - is that this intervention has allowed us to know that the real plant that had the construction was superior to the one delimited by the balustrade." Key has been to document the construction system of that time on a complicated and very inclined geological terrain.

Thanks to this initiative, as Mayor Toni Pérez pointed out, Canfali hill will be consolidated and the proposal is to carry out the musealization and enhancement of all these remains in order that the Castle will once again be an open and full square of life for the use and enjoyment of residents and visitors. The new Castle Square will maintain the current balustrade structure, which has never been an element of the castle itself but has made it world famous, and that has become a cultural element of tremendous importance for the symbolic content it has for Benidorm.