The Port Authority of Alicante has organized a series of 16 conferences to mark the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the Board of Works and Services of the Port of Alicante. Titled "Alicante, the culture of the sea that came to a good port", the initiative offers a journey through the history, heritage, culture, economy, and transformation of the port, while also considering the challenges and opportunities that will shape its future.
The series will take place between October 28, 2026, and March 3, 2027, and will feature specialists from different disciplines and professional backgrounds. Through their presentations, they will address the close link between the port and Alicante, as well as its contribution to the development of the province and its role as an economic, social, and cultural driver.
The sessions will be held at the headquarters of the Port Authority of Alicante, located at Avenida de Perfecto Palacio de la Fuente, number 3. The first conference will take place on Wednesday, October 28, at 12:00 PM, while the remaining scheduled sessions will generally begin at 6:30 PM with free admission until full capacity is reached.
The program will kick off with a conference by historical popularizer and heritage researcher Guillermina Subirá Jordana, titled "1901, the establishment of the Board of Works and Services of the Port of Alicante. Precedents and most relevant consequences". This first session will provide context for the institution's origin and analyze the events that marked its establishment.
From there, the program will cover different aspects of the port's history and evolution. Urban integration, railway infrastructure, the relationship between the port and the city, art, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Engineering and historical heritage will have a prominent place in the interventions of experts such as Armando Ortuño, Jorge A. Soler Díaz, José Ramón Navarro Vera, and Salvador Ivorra.
The historical and cultural dimension will also be present through presentations dedicated to illustrious sailors linked to Alicante, the documentary sources that allow the reconstruction of port history, artistic heritage, and the city's Mediterranean identity. Pascual Rosser Limiñana, María del Olmo Ibáñez, and Matías Pérez Such, among other speakers, will participate in this area.
The series will also address the port's relationship with some of the most representative productive sectors and social and cultural manifestations of the province.
The historical link between wine and the Port of Alicante will be analyzed in a session dedicated to Alicante's wine identity. The program will also include a conference on sports in the port, by journalist and writer Toni Cabot, and another focused on the economic impact of the port infrastructure, which will be given by Paloma Taltavull, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Alicante.
The program also includes a conference dedicated to Pedro Herrero, a doctor and figure linked to social work in Alicante, by José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre and Hermann Francisco Schwarz Chávarri.
The social perspective will play a relevant role in the program. The conference "Women in the Port of Alicante", by Cristina Martínez Álvarez, cultural director of the Juan Gil-Albert Alicantine Institute of Culture, will delve into the presence and contribution of women to port history.
For its part, the Association of Retirees of the Port Authority will lead a session dedicated to recovering the memory of those who have worked in the port, their trades, and their experiences. Titled "Beyond Work: The Social History of the Port of Alicante (1941-1974)", this intervention will highlight the human dimension of the institution and the contribution of its workers to its evolution.
The series will conclude on March 3, 2027, with a closing conference titled "The Future of the Port of Alicante", featuring the President of the Port Authority, Luis Rodríguez, and the Director of the institution, Luis Fernando Sánchez Villena.
This final session will serve to close a program that combines the recovery of historical memory with reflection on the challenges and opportunities facing the port in the coming years.
Beyond its commemorative nature, the initiative aims to offer a global and transversal vision of the Port of Alicante, showing how its evolution has been linked to the transformation of the city and the province. The series also aspires to bring this heritage closer to the public and to generate a space for dissemination and exchange of knowledge.
To this end, the conferences will have an agile and dynamic format, and after each presentation, a dialogue space will be opened for attendees to ask questions, share ideas, and exchange impressions with the speakers and other participants.
With this proposal, the Port Authority of Alicante celebrates its 125 years of history, highlighting the port's legacy and its close relationship with Alicante society, while inviting reflection on its role in the economic, social, and cultural development of the province and its projection into the future.
