The Sant Joan City Council has lost the grant for 98,200 euros from the Consell de Ibiza to restore the Portinatx Tower since the works, planned since 2015, have not been carried out within the deadline. It so happens that, in order to carry out the restoration, the Consistory and the owner of the monument, the Six Senses hotel, must first sign an agreement for the transfer of public use of the property, which was taken for granted in January 2020 and has not yet been finalized. Sant Joan has not yet provided an explanation for the reasons for the delay, requested by this newspaper both on Monday and yesterday.
The economic injection by the Consell was included within the line of grants for the maintenance of Bienes de Interés Cultural (BIC) for the 3 year period 2020-2022 and financed just under half of the works to restore the Portinatx Tower, which were to go out to tender for a base budget of 217,800 euros. Once the period for performing the works is over, Sant Joan will have to wait until the end of this year to apply for a grant again, when a new call will be opened.
The project to strengthen and maintain this piece of defensive architecture, built in the eighteenth century, has been dragging on for a decade, weighed down by sale and purchase operations and bureaucratic hurdles. Like other coastal defense towers of the Pitiusas, the Portinatx Tower is private, but the Sant Joan City Council wanted to take charge of its restoration to prevent the degradation of its structure.
Portinatx Tower to be part of a cultural route
The final objective, in addition to safeguarding the Portinatx Tower monument, was to create a historical and tourist route along the tip of sa Torre. To do this, the City Council has been trying since 2011 to reach an agreement with the owners, the heirs of the businessman Xavier Cabau, who died in 2007.
Finally, in 2015, the City Council signed an agreement with the Consell to co-finance the restoration of the property. That same year, Six Senses bought the former Club Vista Bahía at the tip of sa Torre to turn it into a luxury resort. At that time, Six Senses was a Thai chain, but in 2019 it was acquired by the British group IGH.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.