The Guadix City Council presented the city's monumental heritage at the FITUR International Tourism Fair on Thursday, January 25th. Highlights of its rich patrimony include the Cathedral, the Alcazaba, the Roman Theatre, and palaces, with particular emphasis on its most distinctive feature: the caves of Guadix. An educational video, created by Alberto Tauste, was also presented, offering a deeper look into the city's most important heritage sites.
The delegation from Guadix was headed by the Mayor, Jesús Lorente, along with several members of the City Council. The Regional Delegate for Tourism, Culture, and Sport, Fernando Egea, also attended the presentation. During his address, the Mayor highlighted the countless tourist attractions that the city offers, noting that “Guadix is both a natural and urban landscape. A monumental landscape that holds the secrets of its human artisans, those who, with each stone, each color, each engraving, created a magnificent cathedral from nothing; those craftspeople who adorned the bare walls with art. Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles left their mark on a rich religious heritage bequeathed by faith. The great architects, sculptors, and painters of the time were not immune to the magic that Guadix exudes. And here they came, here they found inspiration, and they wanted to contribute to its beauty with their artistic mastery.”
During his presentation, the mayor highlighted the Guadix Caves, noting that "the 'Accitan Cave Habitat' has been analyzed from every possible angle, leading to the conclusion that its importance is vital as a key element in economic, social, and employment development. From our perspective, the caves seem destined to become one of the driving forces of our region, a tourist resource that contributes to the economic development of our area." For all these reasons, Jesús Lorente announced that the Guadix City Council is already working to have the city's caves declared a World Heritage Site.
For his part, the delegate for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Fernando Egea, believes that Guadix has become “a place of utmost attention from a heritage and tourism point of view for the Junta de Andalucía” and highlighted the “two tourism sustainability plans for the destination and several million euros that are already underway to be implemented throughout the city as well as the entire area, because it is the gateway to the Geopark”.
Egea also highlighted the Roman theater, which has been the subject of two videos and an important presentation, "because the Roman city also had weight throughout history", several sacred art projects that are seeing the light with restorations with subsidies from the Junta de Andalucía and the festival of national tourist interest, the Cascamorras.