On the land where Gerard Piqué, captain of FC Barcelona, plans to build a hotel in Malaga, there is a Muslim necropolis cemetery. Experts indicate that the find has no historical value and therefore, there is no inconvenience for it to go ahead.
The ancient cemetery has 250 tombs that are part of a 15th century Muslim necropolis and is one of the largest discovered in the country. So far only 5% of its total area has been unearthed.
Alberto Cumpián, archaeologist and director of the Arqueosur company, revealed that the tombs are empty because they may never have been used. Therefore, they do not have sufficient value to be preserved.
In this sense, the hotel will continue to be built as of January 2023.
A Muslim necropolis on the hotel grounds
The plot where the hotel will be built was acquired by the family company Kerald Holding, whose president is the soccer player’s father. The cost was about 20 million euros.
The objective is to build a five-star hotel complex with an estimated investment of 50 million euros. The hotel establishment will be operated by the Meliá Group because it will be located in an area of great touristic projection.
Prospecting on this site already indicated that it was very likely to find part of the necropolis there.
The cemetery itself occupies about 3,000 square meters and lasted from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Archaeologist Cumpián said that in addition to the empty tombs, a macabrilla (a funerary stela) was also found, which contained information about a buried family.
Seven years of excavations led to the discovery of the cemetery of the Yabal Faruh necropolis (in present-day Malaga), land purchased by the Piqué family.
Everything indicates that when the family bought the site, they already knew that there were archaeological remains in the area.
Construction may be carried out
Confirmation of the finding does not alter the construction work plan. According to Alberto Cumpián, it will be possible to continue without any inconvenience.
Archaeologists and architects have been working together so that after completing the archaeological intervention, the design of the foundations and the elevation of the hotel will be ready for work to begin immediately.
Experts indicate that although the level of burials is very large, the tombs must be lifted phase by phase in order to access the deepest ones.
Piqué plans to focus on other business fronts, such as the Davis Cup and the management of FC Andorra in the second division.
It will also carry out content production, an eSports team, a brand of sunglasses and the purchase and sale of real estate assets.
