The plenary session of Calpe Town Council will tomorrow approve the awarding of the Jaume Pastor i Fluixà - 9 d'Octubre Prize to the Fundació Comunitat Valenciana MARQ and Marq Museo Arqueológico Alicante for their contribution to the recovery and conservation of the archaeological sites of Banys de la Reina and the medieval Pobla d'Ifac.
The Marq has collaborated with the Department of Architecture of the Provincial Council of Alicante in the preparation and financing of Master Plan of Banys de la Reina, the roadmap that will allow the enhancement of one of the most important archaeological sites in its category in Roman Hispania. This strategic plan proposes in several phases the execution of different actions with the aim of converting the enclave into an archaeological park that can be visited.
On the other hand, the Marq has been carrying out excavation campaigns every summer since 2005 at the medieval Pobla d'Ifac, the ancient Christian settlement on the slopes of the Peñón de Ifach, which predates present-day Calpe and was founded in 1297 by Admiral Roger de Llúria. Thanks to the work of the Marq in these campaigns, valuable information has been discovered about the past and the ancestors of the Calpe people.
On the other hand, the municipal plenary will also recognise several entities and personalities of the municipality in its different modalities:
- Citizen Merit: Juan Santos who has been Justice of the Peace until last May after a career of more than 25 years in the Justice of the Peace, first as a substitute judge and since 2011 as a regular judge.
- Tourist merit: Jaume Masó. He has been working in the tourism sector for more than 50 years, more than 20 years as commercial director of the Unitursa group, a position from which he has contributed to the opening of new tourist markets for Calpe and, consequently, to the growth of tourism in the town. He is a reference in the promotion of tourism in Calpe and stands out for his commercial vocation and commitment to his clients. He is a great ambassador of Calpe because he has taken the brand of the town around the world.
- Sporting merit: Jozef Metelka. Slovak cyclist who trains and lives in Calpe for long periods of the year, winner of three medals at the Paralympic Games in Rio and another three in Tokyo. He is also 15 times world champion.
- Business merit: Pepa Pérez. She is a reference in the world of aesthetics and beauty in Calpe. She opened the first beauty salon in Calpe in 1968 and years later opened Pepa Pérez Esthétic Center in its current location in the Plaza Constitución, from where she has offered the most innovative treatments, equipment and beauty products on the market. Brides, festival girls, ladies, Moors and Christians... generations of Calpe inhabitants have passed through her salon. Her professionalism, her work ethic and her search for excellence make her worthy of this recognition.
- Cultural Merit: Marga López. A native teacher from Novelda, she arrived in Calpe as a teacher at the Azorín School in 1983. After a few years teaching in the infant stage, she became a teacher of the second stage, being the Valencian teacher for all the pupils in this stage as she was the only teacher with a degree in Valencian. She was the founder of the Natura Serpis association in the early 1980s. She retired in 2011 after teaching generations of Calpe citizens
- Premi Jove: Silke Ribes. Currently a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, she has trained with leading teachers and in 2020 received the scholarship of the Curtis Summerfest in Philadelphia, a training programme offered by this high-performance institute, considered the best conservatory in the USA, as well as having won numerous awards despite her youth.
- Corbata de la Vila: Virgen de los Dolores Brotherhood. In the 1990s, a tradition was established whereby the 18 year olds of the current year's Festivities Commission carried the image of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Good Friday procession. This is a recent custom but full of meaning as all the boys and girls of the Festivities Commission are involved during weeks of rehearsals in order to carry the image of the Dolorosa together with the rest of the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of Calpe's Holy Week. Throughout these years the different commissions have had Rafa García, Rogelio Ramírez, Juan Santos and Miguel Ángel Sala as foremen.