I would imagine the Cortijo de Fraile is a part of some National Park system; but, I doubt much else in that area is.
That camping law may be a rather new thing.
I know that Mario Marsili and Yoshifumi Yasuda both camped out (separately) at several Spaghetti Western locations around Almeria and never had any problems doing so.
Of course, those guys were entirely on their own thus making it easier to go undetected.
I would imagine a bunch of rowdy Spaghetti Western fans with beer-bottles flailing in the air would probably attract more attention!
[quote=“Phil H, post:19, topic:2191”]It is but there are camp grounds around in Almeria. When we were there Johnny the Rambla Rambler was staying in one with his family if you remember. Down by San Jose somewhere I think or Cabo de Gata.[/quote]That’s where i stayed with him in 2005 (can’t remember exactly where it was though), i said to Johnny what’s the point of paying to stay in a campsite when we could just camp for free somewhere, it was him who told me about not being able to.
Great news on this at last.
Just got this message from the Facebook group dedicated to saving the building:
Tengo en placer de informaros que el Cortijo del Fraile ha sido declarado hoy “Bien de Interés Cultural”, con la denominación de “Sitio Histórico”.
For the non Spanish speakers amongst you this roughly translates to:
I have the pleasure of informing you that the Cortijo del Fraile has today been declared of “Cultural Importance”, with the denomination of “Historic Site”.
Apparently, with this ruling they are obliged to safeguard the property from further damage and set out a plan of restoration. Looks like it will be saved after all. I am really thrilled by this. It’s a beautiful site and it would have been a tragedy if it had been allowed to fall down through lack of care.
The Almeria news paper ‘La Voz de Almeria’ is already saying that just because it has now been declared a national historic site there is no guarantee it will ever be restored. It is still private property and it is up to the owner to provide any restoration project. What they hope to do is make a deal to pass the land over to the government. Then again there is no guarantee it will be restored by the Spanish government. Sad that it took almost 20 years to get it classified as an historical building and now there is no guarantee it will ever see its grandeur again.
