Heritage

Rain causes Alcudia wall to collapse

Wall collapses in Alcudia

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterAlcudia18/09/2018 14:21

A four-metre section of the wall surrounding Alcudia old town came down on Monday night. The section is by the main car park between Sant Jaume Church and the Can Ramis municipal building. The collapse occurred around ten o'clock and the recent rains are attributed with having caused it. There were no injuries - fortunately, no one had been walking on the Cami Ronda at the time - and most of the stonework fell into the moat out of harm's way.

Councillor for heritage Barbara Rebassa says that the town hall was aware that the wall was becoming unstable. A renovation project has already been drafted and is waiting upon the go ahead from the Council of Majorca.

An architect and an archaeologist from the Council inspected the damage on Tuesday. The director of heritage, Kiki Coll, later said that poor restoration using Portland cement thirty years ago had been a contributory factor.

Work elsewhere on the walls was restarted last week. This had stopped because the building company which was awarded the contract went bankrupt.

Seven years ago a different part of the walls came down - part of the Santa Maria bastion.

The walls were originally built between 1298 and 1362. There was a great deal of destruction, especially during the Germanies rebellion in the sixteenth century. Restoration which followed this was in a renaissance style. By the end of the nineteenth century, most of the walls had come down. The major project of restoration commenced towards the end of the 1950s.