Benalmádena will create a historical tourist route around the La Tribuna building.

The Benalmádena City Council wants to turn La Tribuna building into a new tourist attraction. This iconic property represents the origins of Arroyo de la Miel and is one of the remaining parts of the San Carlos paper mill complex established in 1784. The council has issued a tender for approximately 135,000 euros for a contract, fully financed with European funds thanks to a grant awarded to the previous municipal government, to materialize an exhibition project for the building and a historical tourist route in its surroundings.

The plan includes external signage, the installation on the ground floor of La Tribuna of a tourist information counter and two exhibition modules, while upstairs there will be an immersive space, with a screen where an explanatory video will be shown and a paper drying area.

Therefore, the building will combine the tourist information point, with an explanation of the material remains of the San Carlos factory and a museum area that presents the historical context in which it emerged, its operation, and its foundational role in the development of the Arroyo de la Miel population center.

The remnants of the industrial complex

At La Tribuna, visitors can learn about the origin of this architecture as part of the San Carlos paper mill complex and as one of its last testimonies, along with a few structures that are still visible nearby: the access arch to the San Carlos paper mill complex and some remains of an aqueduct that provided water from the La Fabriquilla channel.

Outside, the ensemble is completed by a full-body bronze sculpture of Félix Solesio, the Genoese who founded the complex that supplied paper to the Royal Playing Card Factory of the Axarquía town of Macharaviaya, and on the ground floor of La Tribuna, an inscription and the Solesio family crest, both made of stone and most likely originally integrated into the complex’s architecture.