Saturday, March 25, 2023, 11:22
The Rubalcava Palace will finally come out of a hard journey in Orihuela, from an arduous odyssey that has left it marked, full of deep scars. With its cushioned facades missing pieces, with its weathered and canvased wooden gazebo, with its propped-up rococo rooms and its broken glass windows wide open to a garden devoid of those emblematic Canarian palm trees, the decrepit mansion will come to an end. to years of neglect and abandonment.
The City Council will finally start next week the path to remove the Palace from the well of the Red List of Heritage, which it entered in 2016, and return that touch of elegance and distinction to the heart of Rabaloche. “This week we have awarded the direction of works to Architect Sergio Navarro SL for 65,785.98 euros and this coming Wednesday we will sign the rethinking act,” announced yesterday the deputy mayor and mayor of Heritage, José Aix.
And the fact is that, although the official starting gun has not been given to the works, the machines already have an expeditious way to take over the gardens that, this week too, were left clean and cleared of brush along all their edges, with the exception of a palm tree and a pine
Work will start now and continue all year. It will be, then, the municipal Executive that results from the May elections who receives these aristocratic dependencies. But the approach of the current municipal government is very clear. “The rehabilitation of historic buildings had to be mobilized to revitalize the center,” said Aix convinced, who receives this long-awaited step as the beginning of what, he hopes, will be a new awakening of the most monumental Orihuela.
«The City Council is going to receive many buildings in a very short time. Last week the works began in the Caja de Monserrate, we have concluded those of the Marqués de Arneva Palace and we have those of the old courts underway, “he explained. Properties all for which it is planned to give a municipal and administrative use, although, it is clear, there will be plenty of space. “Once it is finished, we will see what the needs and demands of Oriolan society are and, based on this, we will provide the spaces that are needed,” says José Aix.
European Union funds
A year and three months remain ahead, those that Actúa Infraestructuras has to, with those 3.8 million half-financed with European funds Feder, return this dream palace to its former splendor, to the one that attracted hundreds of Oriolan couples until 2006 to say ‘I do’ under its carved roofs. Also because it was chosen for so many years as the headquarters of the Association of Moors and Christians since in 1981 the City Council took ownership of this building, built in the 20s of the last century on the old abbey house of the church of Santiago.
Since Rubalcava was postponed to absolute oblivion, the only intervention it has had was that of its dome and roof in 2009. The project now will be, on the other hand, comprehensive. The foundation and stairs will be consolidated to remove it from its current unstable situation, slabs and roofs will be replaced and ornamental elements will be restored. Examples are the plasterwork and moldings of its noble rooms, which will show off their original furniture again.
In short, a project eagerly awaited, above all by cultural associations, fearful that Orihuela would see another of the most outstanding pillars of its rich heritage fall. Especially when Rubalcava has been until today one of those infallible points, next to the church of San Agustín, of unfulfilled electoral programs.
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