This building is located next to the town hall of Caravaca de la Cruz, in Plaza del Arco. Until the mid-19th century it was the House of the Governors and later the Círculo Artístico was established there. In 2023, on the occasion of the first centenary of the founding of the local Círculo Mercantil, the basic project for adapting the building to new requirements was presented. Currently, the members of the Círculo Mercantil share the building with the festive group Reales Halcones Negros del Desierto, participants in the city's Moors and Christians festivals.
The building
The property is listed in the General Urban Planning Plan of Caravaca de la Cruz with grade 2: structural conservation. Notable features include the imperial staircase accessed through a triple classical arcade and the iconic hall of mirrors. The building combines traditional wooden floor structures with load-bearing walls and cast iron columns. In the 1990s it underwent some unfortunate interventions whose impact the 2023 project aims to minimise.
The intervention
First, a preliminary study of the building was drafted consisting of a script with six actions aimed at updating the property to current safety and accessibility needs and requirements while preserving its cultural value. The basic project develops the first action, which consists of providing the building with an elevator, reorganising the spaces to enhance its most relevant historical and artistic elements, and giving use to the second floor through the design of a games and reading room.
Among the main challenges of the project were creating two celebration halls on the first floor that would reconcile the diversity of events the building may host and respond to the intergenerational nature of its users, or creating toilets for people with reduced mobility in an intricate space that until now lacked them.
