Órgiva lawyer, Miguel Ruiz Almodóvar, known locally for his lawyer’s office-cum-art gallery in the town’s main street, is engaged in a personal crusade against the Town Hall over the demolition and replacement of two fountains. These fountains, which had a design very typical to the area, have been replaced by two very unpopular modern designs.

According to Miguel, the town has lost part of its historic heritage to an incomprehensible desire to modernise the Alpujarra. People come here in search of traditional architecture and monuments, he argues
If we do a little historical research, we will find that this is the third fountain to be built in this historic corner of the town. The first one was built onto the porch of the church in 1924, in front of the Palacio de los Condes de Sástago, which today is the town hall building. The fountain, had three spouts, and very soon received the popular name coinciding with this feature.

The next fountain was built in the 70’s to take the place of the older one. The new one, however, only occupied about half the space taken up by the previous one. Very soon a news kiosk sprung up next to it, providing the image that we all had of it to this day.

It would have been cause for praise had the Town Hall restored the original, instead of erecting the latest one, which gives the image of belonging to a mausoleum, according to the local critics. All the towns and villages of La Alpujarra have their typical fountains, which draw the curiosity of visitors, don’t they?

After having spoken with Miguel for a while, I fully understand the indignation that he feels about the affair. It appears that the Town Hall has received a written protest armed with an impressive amount of signatures, but to date has made no comment.

But it doesn’t end there because more signatures are being collected, amongst them one belonging to the author of Driving Over Lemons, Chris Stewart, who is a long-time Alpujarra resident himself, of course.

Which ever way you look at it, people have a right to be taken aback by this ‘ungainly intrusion.’ For years you have stopped to sip from the fountain, only to find that a bureaucrat in the Town Hall has taken unto himself to decide that the fountain is ‘old looking,’ and instead of restoring it to its original state, decides to replace it with a fountain that would look more at home in a garden on a modern building complex belonging to a golf course.

Anyway, from these pages, I would like to recommend that you pay a visit to Sr. Ruiz Almodóvar’s art gallery, not only to view the works on display but also add your signature if you feel the cause is worthy – perhaps a second bombardment of signatures would get at least some response from the mute Town Hall.

Also, if you would like to express your opinion on the subject, please send it to alpujarra@seasidegazette.es, so that, we can publish it.

Tags: alpujarra, fountain, lanjaron, orgiva, protest