A dollhouse invites you to have fun and learn while playing. That is what the residents of Los Dolores want, that the mansion declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) with which the pedestrian meets by surprise on Castillo del Buen Amor street open its premises as a cultural and leisure center for everyone. municipality.
On the other hand, the Castillito has been the detachment of the Local Police in Los Dolores for eleven years. A three-story mansion, of which the agents only use the facilities on the ground floor. One year after its last restoration, in 2013, a report by inspectors from the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the General Directorate of Community Labor prohibited the use of the spiral staircase that gives access to the first floor for not complying with the requirements of the Occupational Risk Prevention Law.
The structure of the steps does not have the minimum width of one meter established by the standard. In addition, it caused the fall of several agents as denounced by the unions. The suppression of the upper floor left the police without a rest room, lockers and showers.
The Local Police detachment will continue on the ground floor of the building, while the rest is in disuse
“The property is underused and does not comply with the recreational or green area use for which the family gave it up,” said Tomás Illán, promoter of the group ‘La voz del barrio’, which since October has been claiming a popular outcry on social networks in Los Dolores: the opening of the Castillito.
Adaptation of the garden
The group of neighbors proposes that the dependencies of this pre-modernist style building, built in 1899 by the Valladolid architect Tomás Rico, house a library of Cartagena authors and an exhibition hall for the use and enjoyment of local artists.
«It could be a cultural reference for the municipality, which also contributes to revitalize social life in Los Dolores. The heritage of neighborhoods and councils must be valued. There is not only the historic center. Cartagena is much more,” said María Teresa Clemente, a resident of the area.
The Department of Public Roads and Gardens is working on cleaning and adapting the Castillito garden so that it can be opened to the public. “It’s almost ready, we just need to fix the central pond,” said the councilor for the area, Juan Pedro Torralba. For the interior, the plans that the neighbors ask for are not conceived. “At the moment the Police service that only uses the ground floor will continue in the property,” Torralba clarified.
For most residents, “El Castillito is part of our identity”, as stated by the pharmacist Guillermo Vivero. In addition, they consider that its opening for social use is fair because “that was the reason why the family gave it to the City Council,” he concluded.
Although the neighborhood movement started recently, the claim to give a new life to these dependencies is a claim of years.
“We will continue to insist because neither the police are comfortable in facilities that do not meet the requirements, nor do we consider it fair that a BIC building is relegated to such little use,” explained neighbor Isabel García.
A dollhouse in which a mayor of the city lived
The Castillito de Los Dolores was built in 1899 by the architect Tomás Rico, also the author of the Palacio Consistorial. This dollhouse was commissioned by the industrialist Pedro Conesa as a gift to his maternal granddaughter Antonia. The girl even used it as a residence for a while. Antonia’s son, José de la Figuera y Calín, was mayor of Cartagena between 1941 and 1942. His widow, María del Carmen López Casal, ceded the building to the City Council to use it as a park and cultural space for the residents. The restoration and rehabilitation work on the Castillito, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), began in November 2010 and cost around 585,000 euros, of which the City Council provided 210,000 and the rest from the Autonomous Community.
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