The work will take 12 months and has a budget of 2.27 million euros.

This intervention will reopen what is a unique resource for educational leisure in the Balearic Islands.

The councillor of Social Affairs and Sports, Fina Santiago; the director general of Children, Youth and Families, Marta Carrió, and the director of IBJOVE, Tià Lliteres; accompanied by the mayor of Alcúdia, Domingo Bonnín, the councillor of Youth, Bàrbara Rebassa, and the councillor of Environment, Tomàs Adrover; as well as the architects of the work, have visited the beginning of the works that are being carried out in the hostel of La Victoria, in Alcúdia. The work will improve the safety, accessibility and energy efficiency of the hostel, and refurbish what is a unique and emblematic resource for educational leisure in the Balearic Islands.

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Victoria hostel in Alcúdia

The councillor, Fina Santiago, said of the refurbishment work that “we have had to go through many procedures, including modifying a law so that the town council could cede this space to the government for more than 25 years so that we could justify the investment of more than 2 million euros. While it has been closed, every summer we have provided more places in the camp so that the demand for the hostel could be covered. These are basically safety works, in accordance with an architectural report that said that in an emergency situation there were not all the regulatory guarantees and, therefore, we took the decision to stop people entering the building until the safety measures were solved. Taking advantage of this reform, we are looking to improve accessibility and energy sustainability”, said the councillor.

The works began in mid-January and are scheduled to last 12 months.

Budget

The total budget for the work is 2.27 million euros, of which part (1.67 million) comes from the Sustainable Tourism Tax.

Actions

The intervention will allow the hostel to meet the current regulatory requirements and to reopen. Among other actions, electronic barriers will be removed, a second emergency staircase will be built and the energy efficiency of the building and its facilities will be improved.

In addition, the works will create educational and pedagogical spaces, which will facilitate leisure activities for young people.

Intervention in the central courtyard

The building’s central courtyard will see its physiognomy changed in order to make full use of the space. On the one hand, a new large serpentine-shaped ramp will be built that will run through a large part of the courtyard, accompanied by a bench-railing and a series of other elements that will serve to make the space more dynamic for youth leisure. On the other hand, an emergency staircase will also be built, which will be erected as a natural totem. It will be an environmentally friendly construction, made of wood, which will be integrated into the landscape.

Energy efficiency

To ensure energy efficiency, photovoltaic panels will be installed, the windows will be made airtight and the heating system will be changed to operate with a solar-backed boiler.

Historic building

It should be noted that the building that houses the hostel is a construction that was inaugurated in 1964 and has been managed by the Govern de les Illes Balears for more than 50 years. Throughout all these years it has undergone small renovations that made it possible for it to function, until in July 2019 it had to be closed for safety reasons and due to the impossibility of adapting to the regulations.