Lloret de Mar recovers the coastal path 'hijacked' for 17 years by a Kazakh magnate

GironaLloret de Mar is celebrating. After years of demands and legal disputes, the Can Juncadella coastal path, blocked since 2009 by the garden fences of a Kazakh magnate's mansion, will reopen to the public. This has been agreed by the Lloret de Mar City Council in an agreement with the property owner that will allow the route to be redefined and the passage through the estate to be opened. The agreement, which will have to be voted on by the municipal plenary, where it is expected to be approved without problems, will allow compliance with up to six rulings in favour of reopening by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TJSC).

This coastal path, which climbs from Canyelles beach to Morisca cove, in the direction of Tossa de Mar, between cliffs and pine forests, had been closed since 2009. At that time, the owner of the Can Juncadella estate, linked to a very wealthy former president of Kazakhstan, decided to block the path under the pretext of improvement works. The City Council agreed with the owner to reopen the passage once the interventions were completed, but the Asian magnate did not comply and, since 2016, the case had been in the courts.

Ten years later, a second agreement has been reached between the parties to unblock the situation: the agreement stipulates that Flinder Data, the owner's company, will bear the full cost of both the drafting of the plan and the execution of the works for the new route. The route will not be exactly the same as the original, but it will be as close to the sea as possible and will allow enjoyment of hitherto forbidden views, and will connect the blocked section that had been closed with the GR-92 in an integrated manner with the environment.

The property will finance it, but it will be the City Council that will process the planning and, once the works are completed, the path will become public use, and its management and maintenance will fall to the council. Before that, as stipulated by regulations, the draft will be submitted for public information for one month for possible objections. "This agreement must allow residents and visitors to realise this historic demand to walk and enjoy this coastal path, which is respectful of the environment and will form part of our heritage," argues the mayor, Adrià Lamelas. The current agreement is the result of a negotiation process between the City Council, the property owner, and the Generalitat, with several technical meetings and on-site visits that have made it possible to agree on a viable route proposal.

The environmental platform SOS Costa Brava, which from the beginning has been pressuring the municipal government of Lloret to comply with court rulings, is not entirely satisfied with the agreement. "We are at the same point as 17 years ago, when the property signed an agreement to build an alternative path and said it would take care of it, but did not comply. What makes us think that this person will comply now?", asks Jordi Palaudelmàs, president of SOS Costa Brava and resident of Lloret de Mar. And he adds: "Whether or not an agreement is reached with the property is quite indifferent to us, what concerns us is that the path remains closed despite the court rulings. We ask that while the new route is not executed, the City Council opens the old path that passes through the property".

Armed guards, dangerous dogs and a heliport

Can Juncadella's estate is a large property, extremely luxurious, by the sea and surrounded by fences, almost like a fortification. Bars prohibit passage to pedestrians and there are also many dissuasive signs, security cameras, and even warnings broadcast by megaphone. All this discourages anyone who wants to take a few steps, but if any hiker dares to venture in to try to follow the old path, they end up running into heavily armed guards, often with dangerous dogs that intimidate.

The estate, converted into a mansion –or even a “Babylonian palace,” according to some guests at its parties– has been owned since 2007 by the former president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his family. His daughter, Dinara Nazarbayeva, married to Kazakh magnate Timur Kulibayev, usually invites magnates and millionaires from all over the world, some of whom arrive with helicopter-carrying yachts at the nearby coves and land at the estate's heliport, which is twenty hectares. The property, luxuriously expanded and renovated, has about 3,000 square meters, 16 bedrooms, and about twenty bathrooms.