The former tobacco factory is poised to become the main cultural center of the city, next to the Teatro Principal and the future Provincial Auditorium Campoamor. The commitment of the City to rehabilitate the three warehouses store, with state funds, it comes into action now in the main building of the factory complex, at least in its exterior facade. It is the first step again is the central government who bears the cost of this initial phase, special impact for the area because it is a historic building of great sentimental value to thousands of Alicante.

The funding required for the recovery of all the more than 25,000 square meters of the factory is more than a challenge for the Government. It is, above all, a commitment made ​​by President Francisco Campswhich it will take place.

Last January, the mayor, Sonia Castedo, met in Valencia to head of Consell. One of the advertised arrangements after the meeting was to create the City Film and Culture in the tobacco complex. Camps announced a huge investment for this project and the rehabilitation of the Castle of San Fernando. For both initiatives, 35 million euros.

That day it was learned that the municipal idea was to approach The City of Light to the city center, to enable spaces in the former tobacco factory to host the Film Library, and provide facilities to enable exhibitions, concerts, screenings and movie premieres ruts Aguamarga.

In addition, it was said that it will also be the house of the Museum of the Holy Week. A few weeks after the talks that the City had with the University of Alicante to use another resort area for the creation of a large library and 24 hours as the headquarters campus of San Vicente in the city. In any case, as regional funding remains uncertain, City Hall, through the Municipal Culture Plan E and second, it has not missed an opportunity to have some money to invest in this space, located between the districts Pla and San Antón.

The vast interior of the factory is no longer empty and abandoned property, as it has been in recent years, almost since Altadis, the successor of Tabacalera, fled Alicante.

The huge hall which was the House of Mercy of Alicante has become a makeshift restoration laboratory, which highlights the recovery of pieces of the Cross of the pilgrimage to the Santa Faz, the crosses that marked until a bit of the Denia avenue road village.

Luisa Biosca´s work has given life to the old Tobacco Factory, and the results are already visible. And so he was able to see the mayor, Sonia Castedo, and the Councilor for Culture, Miguel Valor, in a recent visit to the factory complex, which could attend to this newspaper. To the outside has also won the lottery, like the aforementioned buildings located along Calle San Carlos, whose rehabilitation eight days ago was reported by this newspaper. The rehabilitation of the facade has already begun. Scaffolds cover the full front of the emblematic building.

In this way and as it reaches the promised money from the Generalitat Valenciana, the Board awarded 600,000 EUR for about the project that consists of restoring and rehabilitation of 23 works including the aforementioned facade of the old Tobacco Factory, the sentry boxes  of Santa Barbara castle,  the facades of the Municipal archive, the traditional sources of the city and parts of the Cross of the Santa Faz.. The company Urbana de Exteriores was the successful tenderer in late May, so it will take several weeks working on this ambitious initiative. Among the improvements made ​​by the initial project of Urbana Exteriores we can highlight the restoration, development and placement of a replica of the original tombstone of Bishop Gómez de Terán.

The prelate of the diocese of Orihuela, who took the city, was commissioned in 1735 to build the House of Mercy, a place created for the reception of the beggars in the city. It took until 1801 for the Diocese to cede to the state part of the building for the construction of the Tobacco Factory. Many generations have passed through Alicante cloister, and now their descendants can do it again.