Xàbia’s Municipal Archive receives more donations for its collection
The latest collection comes from the Doménech Bisquert family and consists of more than 70 tapes.
The forthcoming celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Fogueres de Sant Joan de Xàbia has seen the town’s Municipal Archive received several donations from residents which tell the story of these special midsummer festivities over almost eight decades and already more than 5,000 photographic images have been handed over for safekeeping for future generations.
This week, the Doménech Bisquert family donated more than 70 Single 8 tapes from the 70s and 80s with footage recorded by Ángel Doménech Albi who, as a teenager, was in charge of showing films at the Central Cinema in the heart of the historic centre whilst also participating in the film club hosted by Gata de Gorgos.
He married Rosa Bisquert and was an official of the notary office in Xàbia. Between 1971 and 1974, he was mayor of Xàbia and, as José Salines reflects, he was instrumental in preventing the town from becoming “Little New York” by blocking planning permission for high-rise building up to twelve storeys high being built in the Arenal on land owned by the Mortes family. He was also president of the local branch of the Cruz Roja in 1970.
The councillor responsible for Culture in Xàbia, Mavi Pérez (CPJ), expressed her pride at the generosity of the family which has allowed the town’s fiestas such as the Fogueres as well as images of daily life to be archived.
She invited everyone who has photographs and other testimonies of the town’s history to consider donating them to the Municipal Archive to that they have can be safeguarded for future generations to know “who we were and what we were like”.
She added that all the materials gathered by the Municipal Archive and the Fogueres 75th Anniversary Commission which have been linked to the Fogueres de Sant Joan will be displayed in a special exhibition in June.
