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Date Published: 29/11/2022

Further delays see the completion of Isaac Peral House Museum put back until well into 2023

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Cartagena's Department of Heritage will complete the project after "continuous delays" by construction company, Afesport Cartagena SL

Further delays see the completion of Isaac Peral House Museum put back until well into 2023

The long-awaited completion of Cartagena's Isaac Peral House Museum will now be undertaken by the city hall's Department of Heritage after the original construction company was sanctioned over "continuous delays".

The firm has reported alleged problems in the supply of material, particularly for the installation of a lift at the Naval museum, which has meant delays that have further lengthened the project by at least four months.

Afesport Cartagena SL was scheduled to finish construction of the museum in honour of the Cartagena submarine inventor of the same name by July of this year, a completion date that was then extended to the end of 2022. But, according to municipal sources, the firm was still "dragging its feet" and "accumulating penalties".

The council gave the company the ultimatum of completing or the local authority would take over, which is now the case.

The building was acquired by the city council in November 2015, with the aim of opening it up to visitors. The drafting of the project, commissioned to the architect José Manuel Chacón, had to wait until 2020 in order to adapt the available space for the exhibition of 200 objects related to Isaac Peral that were provided by collector Diego Quevedo.

Work on the refurbishment of Isaac Peral's house, located in Callejón de Zorrilla and built in 1851, began in February 2021 but was halted in September to include the recovery of a cistern found on the ground floor of the building and to relocate the lift to the outside.

Modification of the project involved an investment of 40,460 euros; almost 20% of the total project cost of 203,000 euros.

The house-museum is distributed over four floors of which the façade, the interior rooms, the original floor slabs, the hydraulic tiling of the staircase, which is to be restored, as well as the original flooring, the wooden structure and the original cistern are to be maintained.

The museum will also have a projection room, a conference room and several exhibition areas, including the collection of objects donated by Diego Quevedo.

Among the donated pieces are unique items as the Bank of Spain 50 peseta note featuring the inventor's face that was never issued; the Electra Peral Zaragozana share, the company that Isaac Peral set up in 1893 after leaving the Navy; and fans that were given as gifts when the submersible was launched, as well as submarine plans and documentation.

The collection also includes an unpublished collection of 11 photographs of the first submersion of the submarine in which the Cartagena-born inventor himself can be seen.

In addition to the refurbishment of the building, work will be carried out to reinforce the security of the structure, the accesses and the interior, the protection of the building against noise and installations with energy efficiency criteria, as well as an environmental conditioning system.

Image: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena

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