PRESS RELEASE 

On February 26, the city council formalized the purcharse of the 900-square-meter building

The mayoress of Benifallet, Mercè Pedret, acoompanied by councilor Antonio Llèsera and councilor Lourdes Doliu, have reported this afternoon on all the details of the City Council's acquisition of the Convent building. The space, in neo-Gothic style, was commissioned by Magdalena de Grau and de Gras in 1912 to house the Tertiary Nuns and the school for girls from 1920. It was later a public school and since In the middle of the twentieth century, and until today, it has been the central space of the activities of the municipality, in addition to hosting the doctor's office, the post office, nursery and the lubrary until recntly and the spaces of the different associations of the municipality. "February 26, 2020 is a historic date for our town because this space that we have always felt ours will continue to be of the residents of Benifallet but now written as a municipally owned building," said the mayor, Mercè Pedret.

The purcharse of the Convent materialized on Wednesday 26 February with the signing of the dead with the Parish of Benifallet by which the City Council has acquired this space, of about 900 square meters, for 90,000 euros and the agreement to allocate 5,000 euros per year for the next eight years for improvements to the Parish Church and the Hermitage. "It has been more than two years of intense negotations in order to reach the best agreement for the people and I think we have achieved it, as the cost symbolic and investing in two unique architectural alements of our town will also benefit a municipality that is committed to tourism and heritage", he said. Pedret wanted to add: "I would like to thank today all those people who have made it possible for this building to become municipally owned, for its tenacity, for its struggle and public defense of the convent as a village building since the Bishopric to announce the intention, once the transfer is over, to sell it. His claim has also been key in this process".

Pedret has reported that the 2020 budget includes an item of 25,000 euros for improvements to the Convent, specifically the Casal Municipal. For the time being, the building will continue to house the doctor's office until new one is completed, budgeted by the Generalitat for this year and which will be installed next to the Day Center and the Library and Interpretation Center, on the Paseo of the Orange Trees. It will also maintain the cultural and recreational use the new multipurpose pavilion is built in the building of the SAT cooperative that the City Council acquired in 2018. It should also be remembered that currently in The building is home to the Post Office and is home to the various entities and associations in the municipality.

CONVENT OF THE TERTIARY NUNS

Benifallet

Built in 1912. Neo-Gothic style. BCIL

Plot: 860 square meters. Built area: 1424 square meters

The building was built in 1912 by order of Magdalena de Grau and de Gras and in 1920 under the order of the Tertiary Nuns it began to function as a girl's college until the Civil War. After the war it would return to function like public school.

In 1976 the Parish of Benifallet registered this property in its name by means of article 206 of the Law Regulating Local Finances.

In 1989 an agreement was signed between the Benifallet City Council and the Bishopric of Tortosa, from which the latter ceded the use of the convent building to the City Council for 29 years. In 2018 the agreement expired.

In November 2019 the full City Council approved the purchase of the Convent building.

On February 26, 2020, the deed was signed by which the Convent becomes definatively municipal property.

Benifallet, Terres de l'Ebre, March 2, 2020