TOTEM CASA CERVANTES  

BIC

You have just entered Altea’s old Renaissance quarters.

Altea’s Bastion and Renaissance Area was declared a Cultural Heritage Site (BIC) in 2013.The Bastion conserves its original 1617 structure, with gates giving access to the fortress. The Virgen del Consuelo Church, built between the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries over the remains of the primitive17^th century church, provides character to the ensemble as a whole.

Magnificent buildings from the foundation period, built of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, have also been conserved.

 

Calle Santa Bárbara: the former Calle de la Carnisseria, stands out within the ensemble as a whole. A unique façade can be viewed at the Casa Cervantes house. The house was built by D. Francisco Martínez i Martínez, member of the early 20^th century Valencian Renaissance literary movement and eminent scholar of works by Miguel de Cervantes.

 

Casa Cervantes Façade: a three floored, purist eclectic house of the early 20^th century, with neomudéjar elements and a symmetric whitewashed façade. The central front door is framed by pilasters, a lintel and a semicircular arch. There is a medallion on the tympanum with the figure of a proud knight, with the inscription “CERVANTES”, which gives the house its name. On each side of the door, small semicircular arches frame the geminate windows that open out over a mullion. On the first floor, there are decorated lintels with lobed arches over two balconies, and over the door, there is a central framed decorative figure. The house is crowned by a gallery of small Aragonese semicircular arches and by great wooden eaves. It belonged in latter years to the Olcina family.