Bofill’s Club Social in Calpe: the story of La Manzanera

Anyone who has seen the red maze of La Muralla Roja in Calpe knows the best known building of the La Manzanera estate. Fewer people know that at the foot of the cliff, close to the water, stands another building from the same project.

That is the Club Social: once a swimming pool with a bar above the sea, then abandoned for years, and on Sunday 1 November 2026 its roof fell in.

This is the story of that building, of the estate around it, and of the legal fight now being waged over it. Plus what you can and cannot see there today.

La Manzanera: how the estate came about

It began in the early 1960s, out of the relationship between the family that owned the land and Emilio Bofill, the architect’s father. His son Ricardo Bofill would give the project the name that made it famous.

La Manzanera is not one building but a series. The project takes in Plexus, Xanadú, La Muralla Roja, the villas and the Anfiteatro. Anyone who knows Calpe only from the Peñón and the beaches walks past one of the best known collections of architecture on the Spanish coast without realising it.

Worth knowing before you go: these are homes. People live there. You can look at the facades from the public road, but it is not a museum and you do not simply walk in.

The Club Social: what stood there

In October 1969, Natalia Ortenbach, a member of the family that owned La Manzanera, was granted a twenty-year concession over 1,525 square metres of zona marítimo-terrestre, the strip between land and sea that in Spain belongs to the state.

What went up there sat at the foot of the cliff, practically at the water. According to the description of the concession it comprised:

• a pool twenty metres by six
• a bar and sunbathing terraces
• diving boards and direct access to the sea
• two wooden platforms dismantled each winter, and a staircase down to the water

Local guide Montse Lebrero dates construction to roughly 1969 to 1970. No exact year is documented.

One detail that suddenly carries weight: the concession required free public access to the sea. The stairs had to stay open and the paths could not be blocked off.

The bohemian reputation, weighed honestly

The place is spoken of as a meeting point for the European bohemia: intellectuals, artists and writers who settled on this coast in the sixties and seventies.

We cannot stand that reputation up, so we will not pretend to. In the sources we were able to read, not one artist, writer or visitor is named. What is there is councillor Marco Bittner speaking of “its bohemian life and the films shot there”. No names, no film titles.

That is no reason to leave the story out, but it is a reason to place it. The spot was meant as a gathering place for the residents and visitors of La Manzanera and for bathers, and according to the coverage villagers used it regularly too.

If you want to know more about how Calpe changed in those years, there is the exhibition on a century of tourism in Calpe we wrote about earlier.

Decline, the coastal law and a demolition order

Over the years the place fell into disrepair. There was also a fire, though no source gives the year.

The council has been trying to do something with it for a long time. In 2016 the plan was a walkway and coastal restoration. In 2021 Calp dropped that and asked the ministry for a concession for cultural, scientific and educational use. In 2023 the then planning councillor complained about a report the council had been waiting for since early 2022. In March 2026 the council travelled to Madrid.

Then, in November 2026, came the ruling from the Dirección General de Costas: the concession is withdrawn definitively and the council must demolish the building at its own expense. Mayor Ana Sala called that unacceptable. The decision has been appealed.

The building has no protected status. It is not a Bien de Interés Cultural and appears on no heritage list. Councillors have said they are working towards that, but it has not happened.

The roof comes down

On Sunday 1 November 2026 the roof fell in. Neighbours heard a loud crash. Nobody was hurt, because nobody was inside at the time.

It could have ended differently. According to councillor José Ortega, people had been on the roof the night before, on Halloween, despite the ban.

Local police closed off the access roads. On Monday 2 November the council signed an emergency contract to fence the site and shore up the remaining walls, and opened a new file to restart the procedure.

What this means for you: the building and the affected part of the cove are closed. Access is banned because the structure is in a ruinous state and more may fall. No end date has been given.

What you can see now

The Club Social is out. The rest of La Manzanera is still standing.

La Muralla Roja is the image everyone knows: the red and blue stairs and courtyards above the sea. From the public road you get a good view of the exterior. These are apartments, so walking through and climbing on the roofs is not the idea, however often you see it in photographs.

Xanadú stands beside it, in the same language, more compact and stepped.

The Anfiteatro and the villas belong to the same project and sit nearby.

A good day: La Manzanera from the outside first, then the old town of Calpe, which shows a completely different side of the same place. What else the month holds is in the Costa Blanca in November.

Common questions

Can I visit the Club Social? No. The building and the affected part of the cove are fenced off because of the risk of collapse.

Will it be demolished? That is what Costas demands. The council has appealed and wants to keep the building. The outcome is open.

Is it a listed monument? No. It has no BIC status and is on no list.

Who designed it? The sources attribute it to Ricardo Bofill, as part of La Manzanera. Who exactly drew this one building is not stated.

Which famous people went there? We cannot say. None of the sources we could read gives a name.

Can I go inside La Muralla Roja? These are private homes. Looking from the road is fine, going in is not.

When was it built? Roughly between 1969 and 1970, according to a local guide. No exact year is recorded.

About the authorMilo Schuijt

Milo Schuijt is an entrepreneur and DJ on the Costa Blanca. He writes about the places where he lives, works and plays: from beach bars to the housing market.