Sagunto asks Valencian government to grant heritage status to Les Cases de Queralt
The July plenary voted to urge the Regional Culture Ministry to assess a Bien de Interés Cultural declaration or equivalent protection for the historic coastal complex of Les Cases de Queralt.
Backed by PSOE, PP, Iniciativa Porteña, Vox and Compromís per Sagunt — with only EU-Unides Podem abstaining — the council tasked the Regional Ministry of Culture and the Directorate-General of Cultural Heritage with finding the strongest available legal protection for Les Cases de Queralt, a historic residential complex hugging Sagunto's northern coast beside the beaches of Almardà, Corinto and Malvarrosa.
The motion, tabled by Vox and broadened through amendments from PSOE and PP, targets a BIC designation — Spain's top heritage category under the 1985 Historic Heritage Act, supplemented in the Valencian Community by the 1998 Valencian Cultural Heritage Law. BIC status would lock in compulsory pre-authorisation for any building works and give authorities a legal basis to demand structural conservation rather than periodic sand top-ups.
The root cause is accelerating coastal erosion: breakwaters installed for a beach regeneration scheme at nearby Almenara intercept sediment before it can reach Sagunto's shoreline — a well-documented engineering effect called downdrift sediment starvation. Storm Harry recently worsened the damage. The council additionally approved gathering historical records alongside the residents' associations of the three beaches and drawing up a cultural and tourism strategy for the site. According to Sagunto City Council.