The works of discovery of the remains of the medieval wall of Avilés are in a phase of preventive conservation consisting of the reinforcement and consolidation of the remains found after the demolition of the buildings between numbers 40 and 48 on La Muralla street.
It is a 45-meter stretch on which a preventive conservation task is being carried out, following archaeological guidelines, as reported by the Avilés City Council in a press release. In April, the demolition of the houses began, in order to uncover the remains of the ancient wall of the town of Avilés.
The work was carried out under the supervision of the archaeological team, composed of Patricia Suárez Manjón and Noelia Fernández, from the company Castrum Restoration and Cultural Management, as well as the Archaeology professor at the University of Oviedo, Alejandro García Álvarez-Busto. During this intervention, it has been observed how, over the centuries, the different reforms carried out in the houses attached to the exterior and the buildings constructed inside the wall transformed and modified the preserved remains.
In this way, in numbers 42 to 48, a brick raise was carried out in the 20th century to raise the heights of the buildings attached on either side of the wall. The Preventive Conservation intervention that is being carried out consists of reinforcing and consolidating the historical remains, eliminating a large part of the contemporary elements from the preserved exterior layout of the wall.
The existing brick raises inside the wall could not be removed because the floors and roofs of the buildings attached to the interior rest on them, and their removal would result in the collapse of said constructions. For this reason, and in order to protect them from future alterations, a coating consisting of a layer of lime mortar plaster has been applied, in accordance with the requirements and criteria of the ongoing Conservation intervention.
The removal of the existing buildings inside the lot known as «La Parra» — which are currently protected with lime mortar in the sections that protrude above the Wall — will be postponed until the implementation of the APE CH1 action unit of the Special Plan for the Improvement and Interior Reform of the Historic Center, a process that currently depends on the initiative of its owners.
ACTION PLAN
This action is part of the Tourism Sustainability Plan (PST) of the Avilés Region, funded by the Ministry of Industry of the Government of Spain through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, corresponding to the modernization and competitiveness of the tourism sector; as well as by the Government of the Principality of Asturias — through the Ministry of the Presidency, Demographic Challenge, Equality, and Tourism — and the Avilés Region Consortium.
It has a bidding budget of 411,096 euros, divided into two lots. Lot 1, budgeted at 311,034, includes the drafting services of the project and the execution of the demolition works of the affected buildings; while Lot 2, estimated at 100,062, includes the drafting services of archaeological projects and reports, as well as the execution of the necessary actions in this field and their monitoring.
