The Department of Historical Heritage of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has initiated a new file to protect and recognize the Gran Meliá Salinas Hotel in Costa Teguise as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), in the category of Historical Garden.
The start of the process, approved on March 21, was published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC), just one day after announcing that the Casa-Museo del Campesino and the Monument to Fertility will also enjoy this protection.
It should be noted that, from now on, the property will have full protection during the process, as if it were already declared a BIC, to avoid interventions that could distort its values.
The technical report of the Cabildo highlights that "the interior and exterior gardens of the Gran Meliá Salinas Hotel", in whose design the artist César Manrique intervened, "represent a set of artistic and architectural elements of great relevance that make it worthy of protection, as a set of notorious values of the Historical Heritage converge in it”.
In addition, it recalls that the works of the hotel began in 1974, with an approximate cost of one thousand five hundred million pesetas, being promoted by the Compañía de Explosivos Río Tinto. The architectural part of the project was elaborated by the architect Fernando Higueras Díaz, with José Ramón Álvarez as collaborating architect. The technical director of the works obtained the “National Architecture Award, 1979” through this work. As for the intervention of César Manrique, it consisted of the execution of various interior murals, design of the pool and interior and exterior gardening.
The Gran Meliá Salinas Hotel joins the files already initiated by the Cabildo this year, which include numerous works by Manrique, such as Los Jameos del Agua and its auditorium, the El Diablo restaurant in Timanfaya, his house in Haría and the headquarters of the Foundation.
Likewise, the Church of San Marcial and three properties on Calle Real de Arrecife, the old Oriental hotel, El Mercadillo and the building that housed the Tamaragua store, are also in the process of being declared Assets of Cultural Interest.
