The chimney of La Malagueta on Maestranza street , declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) in 1996, coinciding with the centenary of its construction , is not going through its best moment.
Neighbors of the Sevillana building, built in the early 1980s a few meters from the chimney, contacted La Opinión a few days ago to warn of its poor condition, so that it can be examined and, if necessary, restored.
"There are landslides," explained Pedro Calvo, president of the community of owners of one of the portals of the block, who stressed that they occur, above all, " on the edges of the chimney, where there are many pieces that are missing because they have fallen ».
This neighbor highlighted that the chimney of the old La Malagueta electricity factory has "sections in a poor state of conservation" , and gave as an example the four large spheres located in the corners of the base, next to the start of the main body of the chimney, which present very important cracks. "They're totally cracked," he noted, while also mentioning the cracked kerb that can be seen around the top of the base.
He also made reference to the plants that have appeared in the boot of the main body.
In addition, Pedro Calvo pointed to the floor of the urbanization, at the foot of this BIC, to remember that years ago a piece of iron struck that fell from the top of the chimney that could have killed whoever passed by. "Look at the hole," he commented. As he recalled, after this detachment the chimney was surrounded by scaffolding and the upper part was removed . "They tore it off," he said.
The neighbors showed this newspaper their concern that more pieces could come off and cause an accident that could be fatal. "The chimney is a danger," summed up Pedro Calvo.
Finally, he recalled that during the construction of the Sevillana building, a person close to the work commented "that the chimney had moved and they had to put a lot of rubble and concrete in it." A comment, he pointed out, that puts residents on alert, with a view to future works at the neighboring Endesa headquarters on Maestranza street, part of the old electricity factory , "if they touched the building and lowered the basement one floor", Indian.
A spokeswoman for the administration of the Sevillana building informed this newspaper that, according to the Property Registry, the owner and person responsible for the maintenance of the chimney is not the community of owners but the construction company Vertesa, a company that built it en bloc and that "it has disappeared".
the first protection
As Francisco Rodríguez Marín, president of the Association in Defense of Chimneys and Industrial Heritage of Malaga , reminded this newspaper, La Malagueta was the first chimney in Malaga to be protected, specifically in 1980 , after the efforts of archaeologist Rafael Doors to avoid its demolition. "In extremis it was preserved, leaving an interior patio in the block and giving more buildability."
Currently, it has the double protection of the Junta and the City Council, which included it in the catalog of protected buildings of the PGOU. « It is one of the oldest and most beautiful we have, the work of Eduardo Strachan , the author of the buildings on Calle Larios and the Marqués de Benahavís building» (demolished this spring in Hoyo de Esparteros).
Rodríguez Marín, who is a professor of History of Art at the UMA, calculated that the last serious landslide to which the residents refer took place around 1998 , the last time they placed scaffolding and restored it, although he doubted that they lopped off the head .
The Culture delegate of the Board, Carmen Casero, told La Opinión that she will communicate the complaint to the technicians so that they can inspect the state of the BIC.
The chimney is the only vestige of the factory of the English company The Málaga Electricity Company Limited from 1896 , since the original building by Eduardo Strachan disappeared after the fire of 1958 and only the annexed extension that he carried out in 1922 on the same Maestranza street survives. the engineer Juan Brotons.
A few days ago, residents of La Malagueta demanded the inclusion of the 1922 factory , the current Endesa offices, in the catalog of protected buildings of the PGOU, to make effective the motion supported in July 2017 by all the municipal political groups, before the fear that it could be demolished.
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