Provisional formula found for Bellver Castle patio cover

PALMA
A provisional formula has been put forward to cover the patio of Bellver Castle without making any holes in its ancient walls.
The cover will be fixed over the patio on January 20 for the Palma City Prizes ceremony, and will be secured by a weighting mechanism, meaning that there will be no need to anchor it to the walls or make any holes in the structure.

Rogelio Araujo, Palma's councillor for Culture, said that, for the moment, the project to anchor the cover to 32 points in the wall, according to the design of the Catalan architect Ramon Sastre, will be put to one side.

It will be analysed again by the Historic Heritage Technical Council, and Palma council will then present it once more, with access to more information and with the modifications to the initial project which have been suggested.

Everything indicates that, because of the imminence of the next meeting of this Council in the middle of January, the Council members will not have access to the relevant documentation as, at the moment, the project is awaiting the decision of the technicians, and then “we will decide how to proceed”, said Joan Mas, the Council of Majorca's director for the area.

Rogelio Araujo explained that on Thursday morning he met the Council of Majorca to offer those responsible for Heritage a message of “tranquility, to inform them as we always do, and to assure them that they can count on us”.

Mas confirmed this, adding that “they have assured us that they will comply with the wishes of the Council of Majorca, as they should do, as we are by law in charge of the island's historic heritage”.

Araujo explained to Mas and Joan Cerda (Council of Majorca councillor for Heritage) that for the Palma City Prizes ceremony, “we will not put anything in place which is fixed with rings”. According to Araujo, the temporary textile cover which will be put over the patio on the 20th will be “an adaptation” of Ramon Sastre's design which “was thought of by the staff of the company which was awarded the contract for the installation” and which “will be held down with just a system of weights”.

As its installation will not in any way interfere with the building “it doesn't have to be approved by us, but our technicians will be there, together with those of Palma council, supervising the installation”, said Mas.

With regard to public concern that the cover will be put up for one event and not be taken down afterwards, Araujo said, “it was always our priority, when we first thought of the cover and when we awarded the contract for its installation, that it should be temporary, and easy to take down, without doing damage to the castle, and I have a budget of 70'000 euros for this”.