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The Museu Boca del Calvari in Benidorm hosts the following exhibitions The Guardian Of The Sea. The Tower of Les Caletes in Benidorm and Guardians of Stone. The Castles of Alicantetwo samples that give an account of the importance of the castles, towers and fortifications in our province and whose objective is to to highlight and disseminate the extraordinary cultural heritage it possesses.
The province of Alicante has a long list of more than 250 castles, fortifications, watchtowers and defence towers inland and on the coast, towers of refuge, fortified houses, forts and batteries that corroborate that Alicante has been a land forged by these guardians of stone and mud that zealously guard the memory of our history within their solid walls.
Their extremely high heritage value, their deep-rooted connection with the citizens and their attraction as a tourist attraction make them an indispensable reference point for our roots and our history. That is why the Alicante Provincial Council, through its Archaeological Museum, the CV MARQ Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation have opted to produce the exhibition Stone Guardians. Castles of AlicanteThe aim of this exhibition is to travel around the province, showing the enormous wealth of castellological treasures that Alicante possesses.
The exhibition had a difficult challenge to solve, to transfer a material reality of the castles in the territory and impossible to move, to the rooms of the museums and houses of culture of our province. For this purpose, Guardianes de Piedra shows an attractive and impressive presentation, elaborated by the architect Angel Rocamoraawarded the National Prize for Travelling Exhibitions in 2015. Its furniture combines portability with enormous flexibility in its assembly, which allows it to be installed in many different ways, without losing its museographic discourse, being adaptable to almost any cultural space in the province.
With its current stay at the Museu Boca del Calvari in Benidorm, the exhibition Stone Guardians has travelled 14 times, where the exhibition has had the opportunity to show the importance of our castles and fortifications visiting, after its inauguration at MARQ in 2015, among other towns, Villena, Orihuela, Xixona, Callosa del Segura, Guardamar del Segura, La Vila Joiosa, Crevillent, Calp, Monforte del Cid, Petrer, Torrevieja and Rojales. This exhibition was born as a versatile exhibition, capable of absorbing the novelties that were produced as the itinerant exhibitions progressed. Hence, the exhibition The Tower of Les Caletes in Benidorm sample and disseminates the extraordinary cultural heritage of this defensive tower founded in the 16th century, which was revealed by the archaeological work carried out inside it. In recent years, the Benidorm Town Hall has promoted and encouraged conservation work and the enhancement of its main heritage landmarks. The work on the Tossal de la Cala and the Benidorm Castle are well known.
The work carried out in the Torre de les Caletes and on its cliffs during 2017 by the Directorate-General for the Coast and the Sea of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge next to the Benidorm Town Hall The archaeological research has made it possible to safeguard the remains of this Asset of Cultural Interest for the future, to slow down the regression of the cliff and to enhance the value of this coastal defence with archaeological research that has uncovered the chamber used by the tower guards to store provisions and weapons and to prepare for the day and night surveillance of the coast.
In this context, and taking advantage of Guardianes' stay in Benidorm, the Diputación de Alicante, through the MARQ, Museo Arqueológico de Alicante, the Ayuntamiento de Benidorm, the Fundación CV MARQ and the Banco Sabadell Foundation have collaborated jointly in the organisation of the exhibition. The Guardian of the Sea. Benidorm's Torre de les Caletes (Caletes Tower)The first public exhibition, available for the first time at the Museu Boca del Calvari in Benidorm from March to October 2023..
