Limpias (EFE).- The historic city booth, which even starred in movies, has now become an avant-garde claim in some towns, such as Limpias, which has decided to turn this communication icon into a tourist information point.
Located in a central square in this municipality of 2,000 inhabitants next to the Asón River, the cabin has maintained its symbolic glass structure with a blue pyramidal roof, and the telephone has been replaced by a touch screen to view content every day of the year.
This “pioneering” idea in Cantabria, according to its promoters, arose from the occurrence of one of the councilors of the City Council after seeing on television similar examples of conversion of cabins in other enclaves of Spain.
It is about “reusing” a “hulk”, which is no longer useful and was going to be removed, into something “interesting” to offer to residents and tourists, explains the mayoress of Limpias, María del Mar Iglesias, to EFE.
The mobile moved to the cabin…
The councilor shows how now in this booth you can see “all the information that is constantly generated in the town.”
“Not so many years ago, public booths were widely used and had their charm, but now we all have a mobile phone and they are not used,” he recalls.
The first step was to contact Telefónica to request the transfer of the installation and, later, they cleaned up the space with a map and textual information of the municipality, decorated it with a singular poetry on vinyl and also implemented a station to charge mobile phones.
All this to complete the main element, a digital screen that shows, as if it were a web, aspects of the history of Limpias, the street map, events and agenda, festivals and cultural activities and the main heritage and monumental assets.
The potential of Limpias
Not surprisingly, according to the mayoress, Limpias has “a lot of potential” for tourism, because in the past it was a “unique” river port in the region, called del Ribero, through which a multitude of resources were exported to other countries.
Now its docks lack activity, but an open-air museum has been located with various elements and navigation objects, in memory of its important maritime history.
It also stands out for its civil architecture in the form of mansions and palaces, with the Clock Tower that allowed the residents of Limpias and its surroundings to listen to the official time in the past.
Likewise, other possible uses are attributed to it as a lighthouse, watchtower or communication tower, due to its strategic and dominant location in the territory.
The Parador de Limpias is another of its tourist exponents. A rustic-style palace, an example of 19th century modernism. Or the old fish market in the port, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, which is going to be transformed into an Interpretation Center.
Looking to the future, Limpias, together with other towns in the Asón estuary, proposes the Development of a Plan of Tourist Excellence to recover old deteriorated tide mills or start up an electric boat with guided routes along the river.
