Manilva Town Hall received on Thursday the project for the recovery of the Roman salting site and the construction of homes on the plot next to the Castillo de la Duquesa, a site declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).
The meeting was attended by the mayor, Mario Jiménez, the Urban Planning councillor, Juan Carlos Morejón, municipal technicians, representatives of Grupo ABU (the developer of the residential project) and the architecture team Bakpak.
According to the Town Hall, the main aim is to enhance the remains of an industrial building of Roman origin, guaranteeing the conservation of the municipal heritage. To this end, work will be carried out in accordance with the relevant technical reports and under the supervision of the institutions responsible for historical heritage. The Town Hall has said it will report in detail on the progress of the project.
A project «with a long history»
The creation of an archaeological museum on this site was announced in April 2023, when the Town Hall said it would be responsible for managing the future cultural space arising from the urban development of the area.
In July 2024, the development of 143 homes that Grupo ABU will build on the seafront, next to the Castillo, was officially presented, with an investment of more than 80 million euros. The project included the integration of a museum space with the archaeological remains found on the plot.
A few days later, the organisation Verdemar Ecologistas en Acción filed a complaint with the Provincial Public Prosecutor’s Office in Málaga, alleging a possible offence against historical heritage in connection with the initial works in the area, and requested the opening of investigative proceedings and the precautionary suspension of the urban development work.
Municipal interest
Following these developments, the Town Hall now insists on its «utmost interest» in the recovery and protection of the municipal heritage, stressing that the development will comply with current planning and heritage law.
The Castillo de la Duquesa site, which preserves remains from the 1st to the 5th centuries AD, is one of the most important archaeological sites in the municipality, and enhancing it has been a stated objective of the Town Hall in recent years.
