The three million that the Ministry of Culture, from European funds, had confirmed to the Government of the Canary Islands and that it was going to allocate in its entirety for the Palacio de Nava, in La Laguna, the Ministry has finally cut to 1,260,823 euros, after making some changes in the criteria for granting said funds. This has caused the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Regional Executive to have had to adapt the restoration and modernization project of the building’s facilities to the new amount, which will allow the restoration of the part of the building that will house the future interpretation center of La Laguna, but not its museum project.
This was explained yesterday by the general director of Cultural Heritage, María Antonia Perera, who emphasized that “I have no intention of lying at any time” and that if it has gone from three to 1.2 million “it is because of changes that should be asked. to the Ministry why it has done them, but at no time have we stopped working on this project that excites us a lot”; thus also responding to CC de La Laguna, which last Monday denounced that Perera had “cheated and lied” to the lagoons when announcing in 2021 those three million from the Ministry for the property.
María Antonia Perera recalled that “the Ministry offered us those three million and we said that we would take them for the Palacio de Nava”, for its restoration and adaptation to its future uses, with the execution of the museum project included. However, “in two councils of ministers this project has changed, and it cannot now be a comprehensive project. For this reason, which is the exclusive responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, they require us that the actions must have as their main objective the conservation and restoration of the properties declared BIC, that is, 100% restoration. “In a sectoral conference on Culture, the territorial distribution of the credits was approved, and it was there that the Ministry gave 1,260,823 euros to the Canary Islands and all of that is what we were able to allocate to the Palacio de Nava”, she continued explaining.
When the Ministry reduced its departure, “we had to order an adaptation of the project”, and remove the part of the restoration “in the garden and the back rooms, and the electrical installation, because the law does not allow to undertake only a part”, and take out the museum project. Specifically, the project will intervene on 2,260 square meters of the total of 2,833 that the building has, acting on “wooden floors, all roofs, rear facade, all partitions and carpentry and two stairs that lead to the mezzanine”. For these works, “the specifications of the administrative clauses have already been drawn up and the referral of the same to the Intervention of the Government of the Canary Islands is pending. We hope that within a month it will go out to tender now, and I hope that before the end of the year the work will begin”, the general director advanced.
But the part that is intervened “will be ready to be used for the purposes that we consider, which continue to be those of an interpretation center in La Laguna, a part for the Pedro González Foundation and a multipurpose exhibition hall,” added María Antonia Perera, although conditioning for said uses are not included in these 1.2 million from the Ministry. “Parts will be needed for the museum project of the interpretation center, which we have already drawn up, and the part of the Foundation is its responsibility or that of the General Directorate of Culture”, she pointed out.
An item for the center that “now we do not know how much it will mean, but we believe it will not be much, when the works progress a little we will have an idea of how much we are talking about”, and all financing options will be assessed, as well as for the area that will remain to be restored.
