The Skyline of Granada remains unchanged. There will be no works, at least for now, in the Carmen de San Agustín, property of the millionaire emir of Qatar Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani. The sheikh, who fell in love with the estate on one of his trips to the red city and ended up buying it for 16 million euros in 2019, has seen how his idea of building a mansion in front of the Alhambra faded when he literally collided with the standards of the Albaicín Plan, a neighborhood also declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Arab tycoon's representatives have been trying to satisfy their boss's needs for months, but their projects are currently outside the legislation. On the plot of 5,500 square meters, no new building can be planned, nor can the built surface be increased nor can the layout of the gardens that comprise it be altered. Both the main house, which dates back to the 1940s and consists of 800 square meters, and the recreational areas full of vegetation, have level 3 protection according to the Special Plan for Protection and Interior Reform of the Albacín, which allows construction works. conservation and rehabilitation in the area, but always respecting its heritage value.
A priori, it seems like a bad investment for someone who had planned to build a house to their liking but which, without a doubt, constitutes one of the most impressive windows to the great jewel of Granada and, on top of that, as icing on the cake, it has a perfect orientation to Mecca, something that ended up conquering the emir. The setting is incomparable: The Alhambra, the Generalife, the Sierra Nevada, the Sacromonte and the upper area of the Albaicín, views of incalculable value within the reach of very few. Money has turned out to be the least of the problems for Tamin, who is swimming in abundance thanks to the exploitation of hydrocarbons and natural gas in the country he governs (he also owns the Paris Saint Germain club, PSG, and the TV network Al Jazeera, among others). The real obstacle has been found in the heritage protection regulations, which short-circuit their aspirations by blurring the lines outlined by the architects.
After two years of tough negotiations with the previous owners, relatives of the deceased founder of the Puleva company, Rafael Pérez-Pire, the president managed to obtain the land for an amount substantially less than the initial sale price (25 million euros). and put his machinery to work on his dream. At first, he wanted to demolish the current building to build a new modern-style home according to his needs, a project that was automatically denied, and later he reported that he would respect and integrate into his work the archaeological remains found on the plot. . But his plan doesn't quite fit the regulations.
It has been the Culture area of the Junta de Andalucía that has asked its legal representatives to provide a favorable report from Icomos (International Council of Monuments and Sites of UNESCO) that guarantees that any reform project that is wanted to be undertaken on the property It is respectful of cultural heritage. Meanwhile, the Carmen de San Agustín, which once housed a convent whose remains are buried, as well as an ancient wall of the popular Albaicín neighborhood declared a Site of Cultural Interest, will remain unchanged after years of history.
It seems that the Granada 'whim' of the emir of Qatar, who has a fortune estimated at 2.5 billion euros, according to 'Forbes' magazine, and properties spread across the European continent, is going to cause him more than one headache. At the moment, the building is paralyzed and months of hard work lie ahead so that a plan can be presented that receives the approval of all the institutions in charge of the cultural protection of the city.
