Lorquí inaugurates the municipal cave 'Las Trillizas', a space that will host the Sound Map

This is one of the city council's pilot actions in the framework of the EU-funded Life City AdaP3 project.

The Lorquí Town Hall inaugurates the municipal cave 'Las Trillizas', located in the Cabezo de Las Polacas, recovered and rehabilitated thanks to the participation in the European project LifeCity Adapt3, led by the Federation of Municipalities of the Region of Murcia. This initiative aims to curb the consequences of climate change in the environment through public-private financing, with the collaboration of companies in the municipality or linked to it through their corporate social responsibility.

In Lorquí there are currently more than 200 cave houses in use and the aim of this project is to carry out a pilot rehabilitation that can serve as an example for the rest of the houses of this type in order to achieve a correct adaptation to the environment, thus avoiding the problems of erosion, damp and landslides, among others.

In this case, the traditional brick vaults have been recovered as an economical structural system that is easy to replicate, lime mortar and concrete have been used because of their lower carbon footprint and greater sustainability, and the earth extracted from the cave has been reused to improve the land above. Sensors have also been installed to confirm the bioclimatic advantages of this type of construction.

"This day is for us another milestone in our trajectory and interest in the recovery and enhancement of both Lorquí's heritage and its own identity, of what we have been, are and will be, so I have to admit that I am especially happy and proud", as the mayor, Joaquín Hernández, said during the inauguration.

"And in addition to this tangible heritage, we cannot forget the intangible heritage, which is just as important," he said. For this reason, the cave of the triplets will become, among other things, a space that houses the Sound Map of Lorquí, a series of sounds that "describe and represent us". The noises and sounds of everyday life in Lorquí and also of great and important moments of the municipality are already collected, and will continue to be collected, by the Intonarumori Association in a sound route which can be accessed from the municipal website and also from a QR code installed in this cave to find out and discover what Lorquí sounds like.

The mayor also took the opportunity to thank its owners, the triplets: Fina, Amparo and Paqui for the donation they have made to the Consistory and the town.

Hernández was accompanied during the event by the secretary general of the Federation of Municipalities, Manuel Pato, the organisation leading this European project, and the municipal technician responsible for the project, Luis Bernardeau.

LifeCity Adapt3 Project

The Lorquí Town Council has been working for years to halt the degradation of the area of Los Cabezos de Lorquí through actions to stabilise the area and improve the urbanisation of the area.

Thus, through the Life City Adapt3 Programme, which has involved funding of almost 250,000 euros, a pilot action was launched to restore a cave house and refurbish the street Cuesta del Catecismo, in the Cabezo de Las Polacas, and to refurbish the viewpoint of the Cabezo de la Ermita and its accesses with solutions based on nature and which would allow this area to be adapted to the effects of climate change. An intervention that has also been carried out thanks to public-private participation with the involvement of several companies in the municipality, through their corporate social responsibility, allowing the partial financing of the work.

The Cabezos de Lorquí are a completely differentiating and identifying element of the town due to their historical importance, their social and landscape value; also allowing the peculiarity of the existence of cave houses that are still inhabited today. However, the process of geological degradation that they have suffered in recent years, intensified by climate change, has led to the abandonment of some of these homes or a decrease in the quality of life for those who still live in them.

In this way, the project has worked to adapt the urban area of Los Cabezos de Lorquí to climate change and to slow down the erosive and degenerative process of Los Cabezos with innovative solutions and methodologies that can be replicated in other places. Likewise, the rehabilitation of a cave house and the refurbishment of the Cuesta del Catecismo street and the Cabezo de la Ermita viewpoint and its accesses have been carried out.

At the Cabezo de la Ermita viewpoint and Cuesta del Catecismo street, concrete walls and blocks have been replaced with gabion walls, geogrids and geocells have been installed, as well as planting with native species, the roadway has been sealed with hot bituminous mix and new wooden furniture, shade and solar lights have been installed. Humidity and temperature sensors have also been installed.