Tangier Faces €174,000 Fine from Spanish City over Neglected Historic Palace

This amount is the sum of the fines imposed on the municipality of Tangier for not having taken charge of the maintenance of the palace nor paid the garbage collection taxes and other taxes, reported on Monday the municipal councilor of Vitoria, César Fernández de Landa, specifying that the council will continue to impose fines until it reaches the maximum of ten, before initiating the expropriation procedure.

The municipal council has tried several times to recover the Álava-Esquível property, without success. The Moroccan government was to cede the palace to the Spanish Executive, the Basque government or the town hall. But the strained diplomatic relations between the two countries blocked this process, which could be relaunched now that relations have been restored.

The Álava-Esquível property has been in the hands of the municipality of Tangier for more than a century. Ricardo de Álava y Carrión, a descendant of General Álava, bet on the property in a card game and lost. The palace ended up in the hands of Ignacio de Figueroa y Bermejillo, Duke of Tovar, who actually donated it to the municipality of Tangier. The latter has converted it into apartments managed by intermediaries from Vitoria.