This initiative aims to defend the legal viability of the project and keep alive one of the most significant heritage initiatives of the current municipal corporation. The process began on December 1 with a commission to the Municipal Legal Advisory Service.
The news has emerged today, although the Coastline Authority's response to the council took place last October. Since then, the City Council had remained silent about the progress of the process.
“"Let no one think that the Valencia City Council is content with the Coastline Authority's response and will cease its efforts to carry out this initiative. An initiative that responds to Sorolla's express will and aims to settle a historical debt of this city to one of its most universal sons. Therefore, we deeply regret that the central government once again turns its back on Valencians, this time through the Coastline Demarcation, preventing the restitution of a monument that stood there decades before the current Valencia Maritime Promenade even existed."
The Department of Culture seeks, with this report, not to propose any alternative, but a legal response to the Central Government's decision that allows the initiative to be reformulated, its legal viability to be defended before the state body, and ultimately, to return the aforementioned monumental complex to the place that served as a backdrop for many of Sorolla's famous beach scenes.
According to sources from the Coastline Demarcation, the three proposals from the City Council (one on the sand, another on the promenade, and a third on a nearby plot) are contrary to the law, but they do not rule out the project itself. These sources have stated that they are "open to new proposals".
The City Council argues that it is a "heritage restitution" and that the unfavorable report issued by the Coastline Authority relies on an interpretation that disregards essential elements of the case. They contend that Article 32.1 of the Coastline Law refers to activities or installations intended to occupy the Maritime-Terrestrial Public Domain in a regulatory context primarily aimed at private, commercial, or service uses. The reconstruction of a commemorative monument, intended for general public use, without associated economic activity, without private use, and with a vocation for permanence over time, presents very different characteristics.
Furthermore, the City Council maintains that the project is a "heritage restitution of a pre-existing asset and not a new occupation of the Maritime-Terrestrial Public Domain". In this regard, the Culture Councillor has highlighted the legal relevance of the fact that the monument was historically located on the beach itself and that the proposed action consists of its reconstruction at or near its original location, through an anastylosis intervention on a complex from which a significant number of original pieces are preserved.
Finally, the City Council argues that this response from the Coastline Authority has the legal nature of a response to a preliminary consultation and not that of a definitive resolution that ends a concession procedure. Therefore, they confirm that they are keeping the project alive and will defend the locations that the Ministry has rejected, engaging in a legal battle. The recovery of the Sorolla Monument was announced in July 2024 as one of the major projects of the legislature.
