“The fact that it has not started yet does not mean that we are going to forget it,” said the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, when asked by journalists about the restoration project of the Cathedral of Santa María la Mayor in Cartagena. He asked for patience and gave the example of the Cathedral of Burgos, “where they still remind us that there are some stained glass windows to restore”, and that of Vic, “where something similar happens with some valuable murals”.
The Cathedral of Cartagena has approved a master plan commissioned by the Bishopric. In addition, it has an agreement from 2019, by virtue of which the Ministry of Public Works undertook to invest more than two million euros in the recovery.
The Minister for the Presidency, Tourism and Culture, Marcos Ortuño, reported that he took advantage of Iceta’s visit to ask him to set aside European funds to finance the first phase of the recovery of the Roman Theater porch. «He has assured us that at the end of the month we can receive that money, which we need in the face of time pressure because the deadlines are running out. The request for this financing is now due to the fact that we already have the excavation and enhancement project completed », he explained. The initial request is around one million euros.
Ortuño also added his proposal that the Ministry recover a budget item introduced through an amendment by Citizens several years ago, for the recovery of coastal batteries. “It was also a million, but it was never spent,” he recalled.
The mayor of Cartagena, Noelia Arroyo, recalled that the municipality continues to work on its candidacy for UNESCO World Heritage status. “We have seen that a good way to approach it is to present it as a transnational project of a commercial and cultural route within the Mediterranean, especially in the Phoenician part”, she explained.
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