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ARCHIVED - Dozens of Benidorm holiday snaps taken by British tourist 60 years ago could soon be on public display
The black and white photographs were taken before the Costa Blanca tourist capital underwent a development boom
A collection of black and white photographs taken by a British tourist holidaying in Benidorm in the 50/60s, the early years of tourism development in the resort, have been donated to the Town Hall's Municipal Archives and will be on public display "in the near future".
The 86 snaps were discovered by Dutch businessman and patron of the arts Wim Kuipers who found them in an album while researching material about Torremolinos and El Ejido and decided to give them to Benidorm Council.
According to Councillor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer, the
collection "brings unpublished images of Benidorm" that "testify to the evolution of our town in recent decades".
"In addition to the undoubted informative value, this donation contains a story of chance and altruism, which deserves to be told. For more than four decades Wim Kuipers has been working to recover the historical heritage of Torremolinos and El Ejido, and in his eagerness to document the tourist history of both municipalities he acquired an album containing photographs of a British family's holidays in the Spanish Mediterranean," she added.
"Fascinated by these images, which he came across by chance, and determined that they should not fall into oblivion, Wim Kuipers contacted our Archive to offer this material unselfishly; a generous gesture that stems from his vocation to safeguard our heritage and for which we thank him enormously".
The images are believed to have been taken between 1959 and 1962, and while some are of a personal nature, others are of landscapes and well-known places in Benidorm.It's known that the British family stayed at the Hotel Rosaleda and during their stay visited the municipal food market that was then held in the streets Martínez Oriola and Costera del Barco. They spent a day on Poniente beach, visited the port and strolled along Tomás Ortuño and Carreró dels Gats streets.
In 2021, a German tourist gifted the Municipal Archives with footage of family holidays in Benidorm at the end of the 50s.
"All of these donations contribute to increasing the documentation and material on Benidorm over the last century. With them we can deepen the study and analysis of the evolution of our town that has now been transformed into a reference tourist destination," said the heritage councillor.
The photographs donated by Wim Kuipers are already available for researchers to consult and "in the near future" will also be available to the general public following the launch of the Town Hall's new Archive management and consultation programme, which is currently in the implementation phase.
Image: Ayuntamiento de Benidorm
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