An unseemly squabble has broken out between the new centre's architects and the Garcia Lorca Foundation. The Foundation wants to see proof that the conditions of the library are suitable to house Lorca's manuscripts. Already the opening had been delayed due to accusations of money laundering and falsifying documents. This latest set back has not dimmed the enthusiasm of Lorca enthusiasts though, who are still patiently waiting to see their literary icon's works displayed in one place.
According to the architects of the new Lorca Centre, the building is fully equipped, providing appropriate levels of humidity, temperature and light fixtures to house the precious manuscripts suitably. However, Lorca's niece, who is head of the Garcia Lorca Foundation, is still waiting for approval of the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, an organisation currently responsible for the storage of the manuscripts.
Creating a new cultural Heart for Granada
Although the centre will remain open to the public at present, Lorca fans won't be getting their eager bookworm paws on the great author's manuscripts any time soon. Eventually, when all areas of the centre are open and in full operation, the Centro Federico Garcia Lorca will have three different activity areas:
A. Conservation and diffusion of Federico García Lorca’s work;
B. Commitment to international artistic expressions;
C. Development of an intense educational action program with children and youth in their relationship with several art forms.
The centre's aim is to care, conserve and study the Lorca collection of works: The centre boasts a total floor space of 4,700 square metres. Visitors enter via a spacious passage-lobby, a large hall that serves as the cultural heart and soul of this Granada neighbourhood. There will also be an exhibition room, for which 500 square metres have been set aside for temporary and permanent displays.
A 424-seat theatre will also be part of the finished centre, fit to host chamber music, cinema, dance and other concert events. A library will become home to the Federico Garcia Lorca Foundation's own collection and will serve as the access point to the Centre's general archive. There will also be an armoured archive, which will be part of the general library, but inaccessible to the general public. Here the Foundation's original manuscripts will be guarded.
Mobile partitions will be used to create comfortable, modern spaces that can be used for workshops and seminars.
Lorca: Granada's most famous Citizen
Born in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles west of Granada, on 5th June 1898, Federico Garcia Lorca was one of Spain's most successful playwrights, poets and theatre directors. The poet's connections with the city of Granada remained strong. After graduating from secondary school in 1915, he enrolled at the University of Granada, reading law, literature and composition. His family moved to three different homes during his formative years, but always remained true to their Granada roots. These homes, located in Fuente Vaqueros, Valderrubio and Huerta de San Vicente have all been opened to the public as museums.
Rather surprisingly, his first love was music, not literature, but mingling with young artists in El Rinconcillo at the famous cafe Alameda in Granada must have rubbed off somehow, because eventually, under the tutelage of a university professor, he began to write his first book: Impresiones y Paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes, which was printed privately in 1918, financed by his father.
He met and befriended noteworthy contemporaries like surrealist painter Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel, had poet Juan Ramón Jiménez as his patron and became eventually close to Gregorio Martinez Sierra, the then director of Madrid's Teatro Eslava, where Lorca wrote and staged his first play, El malefico de la mariposa (The Butterfly's Evil Spell).
He was executed by the Nationalist forces at the outset of the Spanish Civil War in August 1936, having gained international recognition for his work.
The Lorca Centre will greatly enhance Granada's appeal to literary scholars and Lorca fans, although the city of Granada is already one of Spain's most visited destinations, owing to the magnificent medieval Moorish castle, the Alhambra, and a wealth of historic buildings within the city's original walled fortifications. Granada lies about 1.5 hours drive from Marbella and the Costa del Sol and makes for a fabulous city break.