Famous for being one of Brits favourite holiday destinations, Benidorm is home to cheap pub, a beautiful beach and a traditional town. But what many may not know is there’s a gigantic abandoned shopping centre as well.
One Benidorm enthusiast unveiled an eerie sight that many tourists have likely walked right past. Lucy shared her unusual finding on YouTube and went on to explore what exactly happened to the once thriving building.
She points out that there are some businesses functioning on the outside of the mall, making it less obvious that behind those walls, lies the mysterious unknown.
Sitting on the ground floor on the edge of the forgotten about shopping centre, you can find a cafe, bakery, travel excursion shop and a variety of clothing stores, but the top floor looks completely empty.
On the fourth side of this large centre Lucy shows that aside from two small businesses, everything else in this section looks as though someone has locked it up, and thrown away the key. The Benidorm enthusiast said: “Now we’re going to take you for a look inside where you’ll really start to see what I mean about this place being abandoned.”
Taking us on a tour inside, Lucy explains: “On this entrance you’ve got signage, and you can see there are 77 units in this shopping center. Only about a third of them are occupied, according to that sign, but I’ve counted at least five of them on that side that have actually closed down.”
With panning shots of the corridors throughout the video it’s clear that this shopping centre is a gigantic space that for unknown reasons, has been left untouched for years. With its prime location and sizable space, the Benidorm-lover says it’s a “shame” that the hotspot is going to waste.
She continued: “I just can’t understand it. You would think businesses would be fighting over such a good location but it’s almost like people have just forgotten that it exists. I actually really struggled to find out any information on this place in my 20 odd years here, I only remember it looking pretty similar to how it is now, a sad sight, an empty shell of a shopping center.”
After asking around, in an attempt to gather some information, Lucy discovered that it used to be one of five campsites in Benidorm back in the 70s. It was around the turn of the decade, in the 80s that it was then transformed into a once thriving shopping centre.
The palace was known as Loria, which refers to an old water feature that stood there years ago, but was formally known as El Centro. According to the Benidorm enthusiast, there also used to be a cinema that was a part of the building.
“I only managed to find one picture of the cinema online, it was called Cine Centro and some people I have spoken to do have fun memories of that Cinema, but I don’t think it lasted very long either, Lucy tells viewers. “Then, without the facilities and without the cinema to bring people here, the shops that were here, just drifted into Oblivion.”
Projects for Benidorm in 2025 could result in an access road being built in the back of the ringcon Deo area, which eventually should lead to the construction of a huge shopping center, according to the Youtube channel. But it boards the question: does Benidorm need a new shopping centre when there’s this place sitting and waiting for some investment and rejuvenation
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
