The Burriana City Council and the Orange Museum Archive Foundation have signed an agreement that guarantees the safeguarding of the city's citrus heritage. The document formalizes the free transfer of the entire collection for four years, with the possibility of extension, to allow for urgent intervention and the search for a new exhibition space.
This initiative is part of the «Burriana City of Museums» project, which also includes the upcoming opening of the Cardenal Tarancón Museum. The agreement follows the modification of the foundation's statutes and the direct assumption of control and management by the council, aiming to address the project's main challenges: recovering all conserved material and advancing the search for a new physical headquarters.
The signing of the agreement, by the mayor of Burriana, Jorge Monferrer Daudí, and the foundation's board secretary, Juan Manuel Calpe García, resolves the urgent need to relocate the funds stored in the old headquarters, owned by the Fundació Caixa Castelló, and ensures the physical integrity of this valuable cultural and historical legacy. The agreement responds to inspection reports from the Territorial Directorate of Education, Culture, and Universities of Castellón, which recalled the legal obligation to guarantee the conservation of assets included in the Valencian Cultural Heritage Inventory.
The council will undertake treatments for pest control, cleaning, packaging, and storage in municipal facilities. During the transfer period, the City Council will have the rights to manipulate, conserve, restore, move, study, and lend the pieces to third parties. A joint monitoring commission will be established, and a municipal technician will be appointed as responsible.
To finance immediate actions, the council has approved a credit modification of 100,000 euros for the archive's treatment, conservation and restoration interventions, packaging, relocation, and museum equipment. Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 50,000 euros for the museum.
The technical proposal includes contracting specialized assistance for the control, inventory, and safe movement of the museum's pieces and archive. Priority tasks include emptying the old headquarters at the Casa Conill, adapting a municipal space for provisional deposit, and carrying out pest control and humidity control treatments for the material. The exhibition costumes will also be restored, and the corporate image updated.
At the meeting, the new patrons accepted their roles: Mayor Jorge Monferrer as president, Juan Manuel Calpe as secretary, Lidia Abad as Honorary Patron, and councilors Alejandro Clausell (Finance), Paloma Boix (Cultural and Festive Programming), and Noelia Peris (Tourism) as patrons.
Founded in 1995 by Dr. Vicente Abad García, the Orange Museum is a leading center in Europe dedicated to the research and dissemination of the history of the citrus industry. Its collections reflect the economic, social, and cultural evolution of the Comunitat Valenciana since the 18th century, featuring six thematic rooms and a valuable archive-library.
The «Burriana City of Museums» plan is a strategic commitment to revitalize the city's heritage and museum network, including the renovation of the Cardenal Tarancón Museum. The Councilor for Culture, Alejandro Clausell, highlighted that the agreement unblocks a 14-year paralysis, while Mayor Jorge Monferrer Daudí stated that "the history of the orange is the history of Burriana."
