Little hope for ‘Blood wedding’ house

THE country house near Nijar that inspired the classic Spanish play Blood Wedding is beyond rescue.

The Cortijo del Fraile is practically a ruin, revealed a survey by the owners Agricola Mar Menor.

“People need to wake up from their romantic dream about El Fraile,” the technical report warned.

The only solutions are “maintenance and conservation, not restoration,” the report continued.

This would entail making the building watertight, removing rubble and transferring fallen masonry to a temporary store. 

The old house and chapel, which allegedly moved Lorca to write the tragedy in 1932, was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) only after it was already in a bad state of repair.

“The project submitted to the Junta, with a budget of €50,000 and a two-month time schedule, can only halt its decline and is provisional. There is nothing more to say,” announced a Agricola Mar Menor spokesman.

The regional government has yet to accept or decline the company’s offer, made almost a year ago, to cede the building to the administration free of charge, the company pointed out.