It was one of the few, if not the only, cultural enclave of Cadiz that remained closed from the alarm state, but from this Monday the Roman Theater of Cádiz receives visits again after almost eleven months in the shade.
The delegate of Culture and Historical Heritage in Cádiz of the Junta de Andalucía, Mercedes Colombo, wanted to be the first to go through the doors of the interpretation center on Mesón street again accompanied by the coordinator of the Theater, Francisco Alarcón, and the secretary General of Culture, Diego Herrera, to inform the media about the novelties that fly over Balbo’s Coliseum (And a little bit of Agrippa, according to the latest discoveries revealed at the end of last year).
The main one for users is the new conditions to access the Theatrum Balbi Interpretation Center -whose route ends at the site- due to the health emergency caused by Covid-19. Thus, as this newspaper anticipated, they will be visits by reservation (on the phone 677982945 from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) with a very small capacity, just four people per pass, which will take place “more or less every hour taking into account that the route takes just over 45 minutes “Alarcón has specified.
“Really, It is an opportunity to see the Theater as it has never been seen. It is a privileged visit with these passes so reduced in capacity “, the coordinator made a virtue of weakness, while Colombo specified that the departure of the tour through the Campo del Sur, another of the great novelties of this new stage of the enclave, will take place” as of Thursday “since a problem has arisen with the staircase that bridges the gap, of about 60 centimeters, between the floor of the promenade and the last section of the site.
A staircase that, as Colombo and Alarcón explained, is currently made of metal but which will be replaced these days by a wooden one, since the one that can be seen today does not comply with the occupational risk regulations since its last step is of a different measure to the rest. “It was not our problem. We sent the measures well but the supplying company brought us a wrong one and after claiming it Paco (Alarcón) I don’t know how many times already, finally, the solution is that wooden staircase, which was the original idea, which we are waiting for but which will be here on Thursday “, the delegate assured.
At least, this incident has not prevented the jewel of Gades from opening its doors to the public again, although the frequency between some visits and others “these days will be slower” than when the exit through Campo del Sur is enabled because “while a pass is finishing and people go in the direction of the windlass -installed in the gate that separates the Roman Theater from Campo del Sur for this purpose- another group could access it through Mesón street”, shuffles the coordinator of the enclave .
A windlass whose installation “has not been easy at all, like everything that is doing some work in places with important patrimonial value” acknowledged the delegate, who has also called attention to the internal activity that has been carried out in the center in these eleven months in which, he says, “time has been well used.”
In this way, in addition to the placement in different parts of the interpretation center of different dispensers of hydroalcoholic gel, a series of interventions have been carried out, such as improving the lighting and cleaning of the wells, incompatible with visits to the center. “After more than 400,000 visits received since we opened -visits in which people circulate above the wells-boreholes that dot the ground in the center- the crystals of those wells had lost their sharpness so they have been replaced by new ones and, taking advantage of this operation, the guttering of the wells has been painted, the luminaires at the bottom have been replaced by other luminaires that are better suited to the climatic conditions at the bottom of the wells, in such a way that it slows down in a certain way the appearance of flora and nickel in the archaeological remains. In addition, the air extraction system from the wells has been improved “, has listed the coordinator of the Roman Theater of the 1st century BC.
Awarded the drafting of the improvement project
Another of the good news that has been made known during the reopening of the Roman Theater is that the drafting of the colosseum improvement project, whose award process has been stuck since July 2018, has finally come out of the quagmire.
Thus, this coming Monday, February 15, the architects awarded this task -a UTE in which the studies of Francisco Reina, who conducted the previous study, and Tomás Carranza and Javier Montero, who have made several interventions in the Theater and directed the works of the interpretation center – will meet at the site to begin “that important process that is going to develop in the Theater with a first initial investment of more than 1,600,000 euros” remembered the Culture delegate.
A project whose first phase, this one that will be undertaken first, faces the adaptation and rehabilitation of the Posada del Mesón which will become part of the Theatrum Balbi interpretation center. And for which different uses are projected such as “hosting administrative units” since the current ones “are very scarce”, “a classroom to attend visits, do workshops with schoolchildren and host conferences” and in the upper floor “it had been proposed to make a café-viewpoint “, explains Francisco Alarcón, who, together with the delegate, have not finished seeing the creation of this space and acknowledge that they will have to give it a” thought. “
However, they have specified, “the project has been fully approved”, including a second phase in which “intervention in the stands” is contemplated, currently in very poor condition. Thus, it must be remembered that they are 454.000 euros, from ITI funds, which will be used to carry out the project whose awarding was paralyzed almost three years ago when one of the five companies that participated in the process presented an appeal after being discarded in a first screening.
Faced with this situation, in the Administrative Court of Resources of the Junta de Andalucía It was decided to temporarily suspend the award process for the drafting project for the Roman Theater of Cádiz, as an element of guarantee and protection for the administration itself, which considered taking into account what the company demanded. Since the appeal was dismissed, the Ministry reopened the procedure and again put this project out to tender, which, as reported, has already been awarded.
Of course, since the economic amount comes from ITI funds, the project will have to be completed “before December 2022“pointed out the delegate who has taken the opportunity to remember that” there are several municipal cultural projects that also depend on these funds “and that, she considers, need” a push “to get on time. If this deadline is not met, in some projects and others, the money would have to be returned.
– .
