Almuñécar Town Hall inaugurated the square-cum-park at the top of San Sebastian  at the end of last month, squeezing it in before the municipal elections.

The truth is that the Plaza Mirador de la Santa Cruz has been closed off undergoing renovation work, costing 232,000 euros, for over a year with at times, hardly anybody working there.

The inauguration was also timed to coincide with the patron saint of this barrio of Almuñécar, which fell on Friday the 20th and so celebrated the following day, Saturday the 21st.

The whole surface area was repaved after the rain-drainage system was overhauled. After than new lighting was installed and the green areas replanted. The square was also made more accessible for those with mobility problems.

The Councillor for Public Works, Beatriz González, said, “It was a complete overhaul given the deterioration caused by roots pushing up the paving stones,” adding that the area (some 1,500 square metres) also suffered from puddling because of the root growth deforming the surface.

The Town Hall had used funds from the Programa de Fomento de Empleo Agrario (PFEA) corresponding to 2021, which gives you an idea how long the square has been fenced off for obras. The funds are intended, as their name implies, for agricultural use; i.e., rural lanes, etc, and not for urban projects.

Fun fact: The belief that Saint Sebastian was a defense against the plague was a medieval addition to his reputation, which largely accounts for the enormous increase in his importance in the Late Middle Ages. The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one, however. In Greco-Roman myth, Apollo, the archer god, at times destroys his enemies by shooting plague-arrows from the heavens, but is also the deliverer from pestilence; the figure of Sebastian Christianises this folkloric association.

News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)