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City Route
The town grew beyond its walls as corsair attacks diminished from 1670. The Plaza del Olmo became the new town centre. From 1862, the Calle de Colón, the new Valencia road, became the main road. The market, the Theatre Auditorium, the Villa of Centella, the Roman Baths, the Chocolate museums and the…
Centella House (panel no. 40)
The Chalet de Centella was built between 1927 and 1930, in the expansion of Villajoyosa along Calle de Colón, then the Valencia highway, paved for the first time a few years earlier, in 1925. At this time the Calle de Colón had already become the city center, a favorite place for the local population to walk, with unique buildings of different styles such as the Olimpia Cinema, the Álvaro Esquerdo School or interesting rationalist-style buildings from the 25-30s, with which the Chalet itself contrasts, having a more classic style.
Its owner, Vicent Lloret Pérez (1879-1950), built it to establish his habitual residence once his son relieved him of the management of the Canary Islands canning factories. The Lloret y Llinares company (since 1950 with the famous brand "El Ancla") was created in 1870 by the brothers-in-law Miguel Lloret and Felipe Llinares (Vicent's father and uncle). At first they were engaged in marketing agricultural products, then selling fish, and finally they began to preserve salted anchovies and sardines that were fished in the summer, when there was no snow. The business prospered, and the company installed factories in Tarifa, Ceuta and the Canary Islands, and created a fleet of large ships, some from the Villajoyosa shipyards, such as the schooners "Centella" and "Jonense".
The building is a work by Juan Vidal Ramos, one of the most recognized Alicante architects, author of prominent Alicante buildings, such as the Palacio de la Diputación (1926), the Provincial Hospital of San Juan de Dios (today MARQ), the Central Market ( 1921), the Caja de Ahorros building (1918), the Casa de Socorro (1926), the Carbonell (1924) or Lamaignere (1918) houses.
Juan Vidal's architecture often displays an “eclectic” style, that is, a mixture of classic and modern styles typical of the time: thus, on the east façade, a pediment (triangular finish) recalls Greek temples; above it we can see pinnacles with neo-baroque balls and in the rich interior decoration we find modernist touches, as in the tiles on the first floor.
The exotic species of the gardens, such as bamboo, skeletons or the two large monkey-puzzle trees that flank the façade of Calle Colón, were brought on the trips of the Lloret and Llinares company. This gave the chalet an exotic and cosmopolitan touch very much to the taste of the bourgeoisie of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It contains a great variety of species that make it an authentic historical botanical garden, in a neo-Islamic style, imitating those of Cordoba or Seville. The three quarter-century elapsed have given some of the specimens, such as the ficus or araucarias, a monumental appearance.
The building belonged to the family (except for the period of the civil war, in which it was taken to use it as a hospital) until 2009. At that time it was acquired by the Villajoyosa City Council. It decided to rehabilitate it to locate the tourist office. In 2019 other municipal offices have been installed on the first floor, the restoration of the building has continued and work has begun on the musealization of the noblest spaces and the garden.
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