Torrevieja puts €29 million out to tender for a Sea and Salt Museum and a seafront auditorium

Torrevieja is taking a major step in the redevelopment of its historic harbour district. On 24 July 2026 the council approved the tender for two construction projects at the Eras de la Sal: a new Sea and Salt Museum and an open-air auditorium for the famous Habaneras festival. Together they represent an investment of €29,186,968. It is the final phase of a restoration intended to reopen the town’s most emblematic piece of heritage.

What are we talking about?

The Eras de la Sal are the historic salt-loading complex by the harbour. Salt from the lagoons was stored here and carried aboard ships along wooden jetties — for centuries the engine of the local economy. The complex is protected heritage and has also served since 1955 as the open-air stage for the annual habanera festival.

The two projects now tendered complete the restoration. Both were designed by the Madrid practice Paredes Pedrosa, whose starting point was to leave the site, its history and Torrevieja’s bond with sea and salt intact.

The Museo del Mar y de la Sal

The larger of the two projects is the museum, with a tender budget of €18,109,085 and a construction period of twenty months. It will cover 16,112 m² in total, of which 1,305 m² is exhibition space across nine halls telling the story of Torrevieja’s relationship with the sea and with salt production in the lagoons.

Two design choices stand out. The original paving of the Eras is being kept — the new building goes around it rather than over it. And the interior will be kept open and light by skylights whose geometry echoes the salt mountains. Anyone who knows the white heaps along the lagoon will recognise the shape at once.

The project covers more than the museum building alone:

• restoration of the Casa de Administración de las Salinas, which becomes the museum entrance
• extension of the historic caballete (the salt jetty) as far as Avenida Faleria
• the new museum volume, entered from within the Eras themselves
• relandscaping of the esplanade above the museum

An auditorium looking out over the bay

The second contract, with a budget of €11,077,883 and a term of twenty-four months, covers the new open-air auditorium for the Certamen Internacional de Habaneras y Polifonía — the choral festival that has put Torrevieja on the international map since 1955.

The grandstand will occupy the former slipway of Marina Internacional and will seat 1,502 people, roughly 300 more than the current arrangement inside the Eras. Historic elements such as the boat ramp and the traditional building line along the shore will be preserved.

More interesting for residents: the auditorium is not just for one week in summer. The design suits concerts and events year-round, and outside performances the grandstand doubles as a viewpoint over the bay. A public space, in other words, not a fenced-off event site.

Timeline: where do things stand?

Both contracts fall under European procurement rules (SARA) and are open for bids for 35 calendar days. Assessment follows.

Work that through and the auditorium could be ready by the end of 2028 — in time for the 2029 edition of the festival. But with public works of this scale, appeals and delays are the rule rather than the exception. This project was announced more than five years ago; the tender comes late.

The bigger picture: a cultural harbour quarter

Once complete, the complex will comprise five elements: the Sea and Salt Museum, the Casa de Administración de las Salinas, the historic caballete, the new Paseo de la Sal and the auditorium. Around them come walkways, gardens and seating areas, with a continuous pedestrian link between the Paseo Vista Alegre, Calle Salero and the old boatyard.

That puts this project alongside two others we have written about: the new Alto de la Casilla city park in the north of town, and the recently opened Paseo del Mar on the Dique de Levante. Three projects doing the same thing — reconnecting the centre of Torrevieja with its coastline.

What does it mean for property buyers?

Honestly: in the short term, little. This is not a project that changes your daily life tomorrow, and we are cautious about linking cultural investment to property prices — that relationship is far looser than agents sometimes suggest.

What it does say is something about the direction of the town. Torrevieja long had a reputation for running mainly on summer tourism. A council that tenders a €10 million city park, a €60 million harbour promenade and a €29 million cultural complex within five years is investing in the kind of amenities that year-round residents actually use. For anyone considering living here permanently, that matters more than whether the museum opens in 2028 or 2029.

And there is a practical point: if you buy near the harbour or the centre, allow for two years of construction traffic around the Eras de la Sal. Ask about it explicitly at a viewing.