ALICANTE. The neighborhood of San Francisco de Alicante, which limits approximately to the north with the Plaça de la Muntanyeta and Gerona street, to the west with Doctor Gadea avenue, to the east with La Rambla and to the south with the Explanada. These denominations, like the following ones that are mentioned, are the current ones, since over time they have been changing according to the prevailing forms of State: monarchy, republic and dictatorship.
But the importance of this neighborhood that was first a suburb lies not only in the fact that it reflects the growth of the city that began in the Middle Ages, but also because of the illustrious people of Alicante who, since the end of the Modern Age, saw the light in its midst.
The comediographer and poet Carlos Arniches He was born in Golfín street nº 1; a few tens of meters away, at 43 Barón de Finestrat, the painter Emilio Varela (one of his paintings is on display at the Museo Reina Sofía); and very close, at number 3 Calvo Sotelo square, the musician Oscar Espla. In all the houses there is a commemorative stone inscription.
At Castaños nº 20 —bordering on the San Francisco neighborhood— a tombstone reports that the writer was born in that house Gabriel Miro and a few streets below, in Manero Mollá, it is known that it was the birthplace of the doctor Francisco Javier BalmisAlthough the exact location of the house is unknown, nothing appears. And both Balmis and Miró have dedicated squares in the same neighborhood with his bust.
A proposal
It would be to create a route that would go through these places and make these outstanding personalities known. It would be similar to the Barrio de las Letras in Madrid, but here the range of branches of knowledge is broader as it includes writers, musicians, plastic artists and scientists. This new route would join the existing ones such as the Eusebio Sempere Route or the route of the anti-aircraft shelters, to mention a few, as well as the Alicante Cultural Route of the prestigious and influential Wikiloc application that is oriented towards monuments, fountains and buildings of interest. .
In each place where they were born or a bust was erected —as is the case with Miró and Balmis— an information panel could be installed in Spanish, Valencian and English with a QR code and thus the visitor would access through audio guides in the number of languages established to reviews about their biographies, works and visual content (paintings if it is about Varela) and music (in the case of Esplá).
Could other figures be added to this route?
One could be the humanist, historian, jurist and writer Rafael Altamira which in its day was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize. The reason for including it on the route is because the Alicante City University Venue, located on Avenida de Ramón y Cajal (in the same neighborhood as San Francisco), houses a room where his office, library is displayed as a house-museum , paintings, photos and various personal items. In the house on Cienfuegos street nº 2 where he was born, which is far from the neighborhood, a plaque was placed in his memory in his day.
A second figure to consider would be the sailor, naval engineer, spy, diplomat and scientist. George John. But there is a problem and it is that, even if it was by chance, he was not born in Alicante —where his parents had their habitual residence— but in his other house in Novelda, because his family decided to enjoy Christmas there that year. . And since his home on Calle Altamira (near the Rambla) currently has a stone inscription, it could be incorporated —as with Gabriel Miró— into the cultural sphere of the neighborhood and the information panel installed there. Let us remember that the IES Jorge Juan, the first secondary school in the province that was inaugurated in 1845, has been named after him since 1960.
For this reason, with these two celebrities it would be necessary to assess a different alternative to the mere placement of an information panel. It would be a matter of dedicating a room to them in an institution located in the San Francisco neighborhood, like the one in Altamira at the University Headquarters. There are two options: one would be at this same venue and the other at the Juan Gil-Albert Institute of Culture in Alicante (and incidentally it would be integrated into the cultural route). Perhaps the greatest difficulty may arise from the availability of space in these centers, although it would be a subject worth studying.
A dramatized route
In line with the relief of these distinguished personalities, another complementary initiative to those mentioned could be contemplated: establishing a theatrical route of Alicante science —their exciting biographies offer numerous dramatizable elements— and in this way the dissemination of their figures would be further enhanced. In addition, both routes would make a unique contribution to the magnificent cultural offer that the city already offers.