Almuñécar's iconic Casa Barco gets a facelift

Buildings

The house on Avenida del Meditarraneo in the Costa Tropical town was built by merchant sailor José María Pérez Ruiz, known by everyone in the town as Pepe Pérez, who died last year and left the property to his family

MJ Arrebola

Granada

The iconic Casa Barco in Almuñécar on Granada province's Costa Tropical is getting a facelift. The house, located at number 34 Avenida del Mediterráneo, ... just a few metres from San Cristóbal beach, is surrounded by builders and painters who are currently working on the improvement and refurbishment work.

The family that owns the house have explained that the work is needed to to conserve and refurbish the building: "It is a general overhaul to gradually make the building more beautiful. We are doing an overhaul of the façade and a general repair,"

Casa Barco is one of the most photographed places on the Costa Tropical thanks to its peculiar design, in the shape of a boat, the brainchild of José María Pérez Ruiz, known by everyone in the town as Pepe Pérez, who was passionate about the sea.

Merchant sailor

A merchant sailor by profession, he decided almost 50 years ago to build a house that would allow him to keep his link with the sea alive even when he was on land. The house was built in the 1970s and became a landmark for anyone passing by on the street.

The façade on which the work is being carried out is about 75 metres long and represents the port side of the ship. For those who are not familiar with this seafaring language, port and starboard are, respectively, the left and right sides of a ship looking towards the bow. But it is not only on the outside, inside, in every corner of the house there are elements linked to the world of sailing that reflect the trajectory of its skipper.

Portholes from the Puerto de Santa María, masts, ropes, ropes, anchor lights, sextants, compasses, old lighthouses from Motril, galleon nails and numerous seafaring instruments form part of Pepe Pérez's collection. Many of these pieces came from ships that went directly to the scrapyard that the sailor acquired in different ports. The house has rooms decorated with seafaring instruments and on the roof there is a swimming pool and a vegetable garden.

A living legacy

The "ship" has valuable pieces from ships including the 'Juan Sebastián Elcano' and the 'Galatea', as well as a porthole from the destroyer 'Gravina', which witnessed the Civil War.

Pepe Pérez died a year ago and his loss was felt deeply in Almuñécar. However, his legacy lives on. His favourite phrase was: "My boat is my treasure, my god is freedom, my law is strength and the wind, my only homeland is the sea". The boat he imagined and built is still part of the landscape of Almuñécar and remains in the hands of his children, who keep alive the memory of their father who dedicated a large part of his life to the sea.