The new Algeciras Kursaal bears the mark of Guillermo Pérez Villalta, the winner of the National Plastic Arts Award and alma mater of this building, that is both practical and breathtaking, and which will open shortly.

As a conference centre, the Kursaal boasts a visitors' reception centre, an auditorium that can hold up to 150 people, air-conditioned rooms, dressing rooms, simultaneous interpretation booths, bar, courtyards and patios.

But apart from its cultural or tourist purposes, the Kursaal has become a real sightseeing must thanks to the mosaics, mythological themes, shades of ochre, the fountain, the impressive spiral staircase, the golden star on top of the auditorium's dome.

Above all as it is a building full of harmony, warmth, light, imagination and colour, far from the practical architecture that predominate 20th century buildings.

And also as the artist has managed to capture the history, the fascinating mythology of the surrounding region, the Campo de Gibraltar, the southern tip of Europe: separated from Africa by the Straits, a 14-kilometre stretch of water where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Apart from the congress facilities, the building has a library and a visitors’ centre about the two sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, divided into five rooms, each one names after one of the five senses: Sight, Taste, Smell, Hearing and Touch, along with a sixth room about the region’s Andalusi legacy.

The opening of the building coincide with the events to commemorate the centenary of the Algeciras Conference, an anniversary that recalls how the city became the centre of international politics and where they decided how Morocco was to be divided up.

The artist planned the building with Enrique Salva as the architect over ten years ago at the request of the Campo de Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce for it to be its future headquarters. Algeciras City Council, with the support of the Provincial Council, then rescued the initiative and gave it another focus.

Guillermo Pérez Villalta was born in Tarifa in 1948. He has received the Fine Arts Medal of Merit and the Medal of Andalusia and its works are to be found in leading collections and international and national museums.

A multi-talented artist, Pérez Villalta has worked with painting, interior design and designing a wide ranged of items. The references to mythology, nature and the history of art has played an important role in his most recent work, as can seen at the Kursaal, located in the Avenida Villanueva in Algeciras.

The building has been possible thanks to an agreement between Algeciras City Council, Cadiz Provincial Council and the Autonomous Government of Andalusia with European funding.