Former hospital
This late-18th century building was originally the municipal hospital, and it became the Council House after an in-depth renovation
The council house is located in 📍 Plaza del Portal, which owes its name to one of the gates of the town walls. Remnants of the walls and of the main city gate were visible here until the nineteen seventies.
The building that currently hosts the Town Hall was erected in 1790 to act as a Municipal Hospital and as lodgings for the poor and needy. The building was thoroughly renovated almost two centuries later to allow this venerable building to take on a new role.
The other noble building on the square is the one that hosts the Fundación Abargues. This property once belonged to sister Luisa Vives Abargues, who joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Loretto at a very young age. She gave all her goods to charity upon her death in 1937, and a Foundation was created to provide a Christian education to the children and youths of Benissa and its surroundings.
The centre of the square features a sandstone cross that was erected in 1974 and which is reminiscent of the boundary cross that once stood there. Such monuments marked the limits of the district of a town or city.