The Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina", established to preserve the memory and work of Luis Ramírez, has decided to take the "abandonment" of the modernist house in Caleta de Famara by the Bishopric of the Canary Islands to court. In an act of conciliation to be held next Thursday in Court number 11 of Gran Canaria with the Bishop of the Canary Islands, Francisco Cases, the group will demand that the Church "restore" the property or, failing that, proceed "to hand it over to the Cabildo of Lanzarote" as it claims is stipulated in the will of Luis Ramírez.
In its lawsuit, the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" explains that in the ninth clause of his will, made in 1935 and materialized in September 1954, Luis Ramírez bequeathed "in perpetuity" the small hotel in Famara "to the parish of the town of Teguise", with the "exclusive purpose" that it be inhabited "by the coadjutors of the aforementioned parish and, failing that, the parish priest, regent or economo of that parish".
Likewise, he ordered that the small hotel be "kept in good condition", stating that "if for any reason or abandonment by its owners, the hotel should tend to collapse", it would pass "entirely" to the "Hospital de Dolores de Arrecife", a health institution that "since 1913 has belonged to the Island Council of Lanzarote under the name of Insular Hospital", according to the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina".
An "architectural jewel" that is "falling to pieces"
In this regard, the group states that the property, considered "by experts as a unique architectural jewel of the island", is "falling to pieces, posing a serious danger to neighbors, residents and passers-by."
"It is sad and true that, once the Bishopric of the Canary Islands acquired possession of the aforementioned small Hotel described, it never received the necessary care from it, so that, at present, its condition manifests the serious deterioration caused by the logical aggressiveness of the climate and time and, what is worse, by the proven neglect of its owners, the Bishopric of the Canary Islands, who have not done their part what was possible and committed, chronic neglect that has resulted in the consequent complaints and justified alarms, in various media, by individuals or neighborhood associations," he adds.
Thus, through the act of conciliation, the Cultural Association "Majadas de Mina" requires the Bishopric of the Canary Islands to "agree to justify, rectify and, consequently, to ensure that the property is restored" or, failing that, to "proceed to hand it over to the Island Council of Lanzarote so that it may act accordingly." If it does not agree to what is requested, the group warns that "the pertinent legal actions will be initiated in defense of the expressed will of the deceased D. Luis Ramírez in his will."
