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The Local Government Board, meeting today with extraordinary character, under the presidency of the mayor, Ana Belén Castejón, has agreed to appeal on appeal the opening of the file for the declaration of the former prison of San Antón as inventory, to see an ostensible change of criteria regarding the scope of protection of this building, as reported by the Councilor for Culture, Education and Youth, David Martinez.

The appeal is based precisely on the disparity of criteria of the technicians of the general management, since in a first report, which gave rise to the initiation of the file in March of 2017, the access pavilion, the pavilion was protected as a precautionary measure. of inmates and the five sentry boxes that surrounded the wall, which could be rehabilitated and adapted to new uses although without modifying their volumetric conditions.

The inactivity of the regional administration in this matter, caused the expiration of the file in April 2018, date in which it returned to resume with a new report that was only limited to protect the office pavilion with the garden of access to vehicles, the exterior perimeter wall and the five sentry boxes of the building, specifying that the exterior wall could be reduced to its original level and having one or two entrances sufficient for vehicle access, according to the needs of the property.

In the opinion of the Governing Board, this change in criteria regarding the scope of protection, which leaves precisely such a fundamental and characteristic element of the prison as the ward for inmates, is not duly motivated.

For the Governing Board, it is equally contradictory that a procedure be initiated to inventory the former San Antón Prison for its cultural value as an example of prison architecture, the only penitentiary center built during the 11th Republic in the Region and which helps to know the evolution architectural prison and criminal, then leave unprotected by its "little relevance" precisely the flag of inmates, and yet protect the walls and administrative office.

As pointed out by Councilman David Martinez, it can not be argued that the prison is very sober and without outstanding elements, because a building of these characteristics is not characterized by its ornamentation, but by its symbolic significance that implies sobriety and functionality.

Neither the advanced state of degradation of the pavilion of inmates for not protecting it, since there are numerous buildings cataloged and inventoried in the old town of Cartagena, whose state of conservation is practically technical ruin and for that reason they do not stop being protected.

For the municipal government it is also not an argument for the lack of protection of the old cells the fact that the general perception for the non-prisoners was that of an enclosure strongly guarded by a wall and sentry boxes, with an administrative entrance building and that everything inside was left both hidden from view, since a jail is characterized, without a doubt, by a perimeter wall with guard posts, but above all by a set of cells for the prisoners' imprisonment which is its main function and although the dungeons are not see from the outside - what is proper - are undoubtedly an essential intellectual reference to identify a prison building.

To all this, according to the councilman, we should add the relevant historical value, given that in the Region of Murcia are cataloged by their cultural relevance several prisons and prisons that favor the historical reading of the architectural evolution of prisons such as jails concejiles de Cehegín, of party in Totana, ecclesiastic of the Bishopric of Murcia, of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in Murcia, of the inquisition in Murcia, military prisons, etc. ...... ..

Thus, the councilor including the Central Prison of Cartagena has added, the circle of properties of this type in the Region is closed, including a prison built during the Second Republic. "

The councilor stressed that in light of the contents of both technical reports there is no express justification in the second report, or other documentation in the new file, for the change of criteria regarding the elements that are subject to protection.

The appeal has been raised by the municipal government within the period of one month set by the new resolution of initiation of this file.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena