Iconic Torrevieja Ice Factory Left to Ruin

After taking aim at the local government for the lack of maintenance at the historic Eras de la Sal site in Torrevieja, lay derelict and abandoned, despite the fact the area was promoted in the FITUR tourism fair as part of the Habaneras polyphonic competition, and the subsequent site of a fire, for which the condition may well have played a part, the POSE in Torrevieja are now highlighting the neglect of another historical building, purchased with public money by the town hall, and now left in a deteriorating state, the former iconic ice factory building.

According to the PSOE in Torrevieja, led by their representative, Barbara Soler, “The PP is not at all interested in preserving our scarce heritage. The ice factory is an industrial-style building with more than a century of history. The final report of the archaeological study indicates that the state of conservation of the floors and roof of the building is very poor and both in the rooms and in the lantern, the reference space of the building on its upper floor, there are collapses of roof materials throughout the floor surface. The Torrevieja City Council acquired the property at the end of 2021 for almost one million euro”.

Meanwhile, the building protected in the General Plan of Torrevieja as an element of architectural interest urban development was deteriorating without the City Council acting to avoid it. And they still don’t. “The PSOE warns that two years have passed since the reports were made and that, as has happened with the Eras de la Sal, “no measure” have been adopted for the conservation of the ice factory (…) For the PSOE, when the time comes to begin rehabilitation, “it will be bad and late and everything will have been definitively ruined.”

This is not a new phenomenon however, a previously “protected” cinema in the town was simply demolished to make way for a new building, which itself had a chequered development of illegality and failure of building and safety regulations, the Torrevieja Municipal Theatre.  

Of course, then, “as they did with Pascual Flores or intend to do with the old building of the Carmelite Sisters (the Nuns), a new building will be built in imitation of the existing one. “In the PP they still don’t know that original and copy are not the same.”