Benidorm’s tribute to trailblazing mayor who opened the city to tourism

An outdoor art exhibition has opened in tribute to pioneering Benidorm mayor, Pedro Zaragoza Orts. The exhibition is part of ‘Pedro Zaragoza Orts Year’ celebrations in the city.

The exhibition covers the personal life of the mayor as well as his political career as mayor through 19 illustrations of Benidorm.

Zaragoza Orts held the post of mayor from 1950 to 1967 and was integral in Benidorm’s transformation from sleepy fishing town to a beach destination for Northern Europeans on package holidays. Zaragoza Orts seized the advent of air travel to lead a complete change in the city’s fortunes, a journey which led him to battle church officials and even Franco himself to allow bikini-wearing tourists to holiday on the beach.

Current Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, attended the opening ceremony for the exhibition on 24^th of September with local arts representatives. Pérez described the objective of the commemorative exhibition as “letting local people get to know the person who made Benidorm what it is today, in a fun, different and exciting way”.

The exhibition is being shown in L’Espai d’Art Urbà Ponent until the start of 2023.