The City Council manages, with the support of other administrations, the rehabilitation and recovery of the Casa de los Guardeses, Carmen del Negro or the church of San Luis.On the horizon are also the Casa Ágreda and the Palacio de los VargasCarmen del Negro, one of the buildings included in the Alhambra Plan.Photos: Lucia RivasGranada has an overwhelming heritage.So much so that it is almost impossible for it to be preserved in perfect condition in its entirety.It is also true that some elements that were once valuable are now in a deplorable situation, something that we have denounced on other occasions.From time to time rehabilitation projects arise that do not always prosper.Others do, although they take much longer than promised.In the dynamics of reforming and improving what we have, there are several interesting proposals but they have in common the possibility -closer or more distant- of giving life back to some buildings that once had it.To give them a second chance, so to speak.Starting with the one that probably sounds less familiar: to recover, as a cultural space (the specific proposal speaks of a “cultural container”), the Church of San Luis, in the lower Albaicín.Also known as San Luis de los Franceses, it is located on Calle San Luis, near the Puerta de Fajalauza, and of the original temple, from the 16th century and in Gothic-Mudejar style, hardly anything remains except the tower, the walls and the which was the house of the sacristan.The church of San Luis, in the Albaicín, has been desecrated since 1842 and suffered a fire in 1933.Of course it is closed tight and tight.It was deconsecrated in 1842 and partially destroyed in 1933. Now it is a textbook ruin and has earned its own right to appear on the Heritage red list, where the worst-preserved monuments enter.Owned by the Granada City Council since 2006, it is now going to be renovated thanks to Next Generation funds, specifically with a budget of 800,000 euros.The project is in the drafting phase and it is expected that the work can be completed, like all those included in those requested by the central government, between 2024 and 2026.The so-called Alhambra Plan, for its part, will allow the recovery of two properties that are located very close to each other.One is the Casa de los Guardeses and the other, the Carmen del Negro.Both are on the Cuesta del Chapiz, in the Albaicín, and a stone's throw from the Palacio de los Córdova.The Casa de los Guardeses is going to undergo a "comprehensive rehabilitation" to house "complementary tourist services to the Palacio de los Córdova", according to the report on the state of municipal works provided to GranadaiMedia by the Department of Urbanism.For the moment, the execution project has already been drafted and sent to the Ministry of Culture.The House of the Guardians of the Palacio de los Córdova will be financed on account of the Alhambra Plan.The execution has been contracted for an amount of 195,000 euros and it should be remembered, moreover, that its reform is not something that has arisen now.The plenary session of July 2017 already addressed this issue as a result of a proposal from the Popular Party, which requested that it be included in the Dobla de Oro tourist-cultural itinerary. That was approved unanimously, but it is now when it begins to take shape.As for the Carmen del Negro, a three-storey building built in the 16th century and which is a mess, the investment already approved is 2.3 million euros and it will be located there when the works are finished -it is not easy to determine when- the Municipal Historical Archive, now in the adjoining Palacio de los Córdova.The rehabilitation of this carmen will also involve that of the Palace, which, according to Urban Planning, will require, once the historical archive has been transferred, "a series of interventions to transform it into a cultural container, among which the location of an elevator that guarantees the building accessibility conditions.The European Union, through its Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development Strategy (by now much better known by its acronym, EDUSI), for its part contributes funds to remodel a building located on Calle Escudo del Carmen, well visible from San Matthias.Although Urbanism refers to it as the Rey Soler Building, the truth is that it is also known as the old Pilgrim's Hospital.It is a 16th century building that functioned as a hospital until the 18th century.Later it had several uses, the last one being the headquarters of the Granada Press Association and the Andalusian Press Foundation.It closed its doors in March 2016.Rey Soler Building, also called the Old Hospital for Pilgrims, where work is already under way to restore it.At the beginning of 2020, the Granada City Council announced its intention to install a visitor reception center and a tourist office there.Manuel Olivares, a councilor who was on the government team at the time (made up of PP and Ciudadanos), explained that the reform was included in the Tourism Plan for Large Cities sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía and that the budget would be around 150,000 euros.The pandemic arrived and that was never heard of again.Now the idea is rescued but the rehabilitation will have a considerably higher amount, 482,000 euros, because, as specified by the current Councilor for Urban Planning, Miguel Ángel Fernández Madrid, the "technical assessment" carried out in that space has determined that the cost of performances is much higher.The works, by the way, have already begun.There are more actions planned or underway, such as the air conditioning of the Huerta de San Vicente or the replacement of the stained glass windows and the lighting in the library of the Paseo del Salón, but, outside of the menu (that is, of the aforementioned report of the state of municipal works), Fernández Madrid mentions two other works in which the City Council, he assures, will play a fundamental role.One is the rehabilitation of Casa Ágreda, built in the 16th century in the Albaicín and about which rivers of ink have been written in the last decade.The novelty, points out the mayor, is that this reform is already in the competition phase and that it would be financed by the central government and managed by the consistory "one hundred percent."He details that because "initially the work was going to figure in the Alhambra Plan, but there only the drafting of the project was contemplated."The execution has a cost of 6.7 million euros and the funds will reach the central Executive in a new remittance of the already mentioned Next Generation funds.Facade of the Palacio de los Vargas, which is in a deplorable state of conservation.For the end there is an action that depends on private initiative but that can also be very positive for Granada's heritage.The Palacio de los Vargas, another 16th-century jewel located in the very center and in a highly visible state of abandonment, has been acquired by an investment group that intends to use it for tourism.Probably turning it into a hotel, which is the purpose that has already been given to it in recent years in other purchase attempts that, unfortunately, failed.Fernández Madrid prefers to speak skeptically of this latest intervention, because it does not depend on the city council, but in general terms, he qualifies all the projects mentioned here as "very interesting" because rehabilitation means "recovering the city's heritage and revitalizing areas that need that boost" .He underlines, in line with this, that this type of intervention «usually influences, in turn, investments in adjoining buildings and an improvement in the overall maintenance of the space where the recovered monuments are located.It is, therefore, a shock and we have to take advantage of it », he concludes.Your email address will not be published.Required fields are marked with *Receive an email with the following comments to this entry.Receive an email with each new entry.This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.Learn how your comment data is processed.GranadaiMedia - 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