The Paeria, Lleida’s city council, will pay 30,630.29 euros to the companies that refurbished the former Audiencia building for the Museu Morera, as compensation for the damage caused to them by the suspension of the start of the works for nine months, between 2018 and 2019. According to SEGRE, the reason for that suspension was the relocation of the staff of the municipal departments that were then housed in the building. The local government board partially upheld the claim last Thursday, after it was endorsed by the Generalitat’s Legal Advisory Commission.

What the builders were claiming

The joint venture (UTE) in charge of the works, made up of Romero Polo, Sorigué and Arnó, filed a claim for damages amounting to 113,818 euros under several headings. The Legal Advisory Commission and the City Council agreed to pay 30,630.29 euros in compensation and rejected the rest. Last year, the Paeria had already refused to pay the joint venture 144,178.55 euros and ruled that it only owed the 1,681.18 euros of the guarantee, as it was the only expense that had been proven, according to the same newspaper.

A new mayor in the middle of the suspension

The works were suspended from 18 July 2018 to 29 April 2019. In the middle of the suspension the mayor changed: Fèlix Larrosa, until then the councillor for Urban Planning, replaced Àngel Ros at the head of the Paeria, as Nació Digital reported on 27 August 2018. Larrosa is once again the mayor of Lleida today, according to SEGRE, and the compensation has been approved by the local government board of his municipal government.

A contract signed in 2018 for a building due in 2021

As SEGRE reported in 2019, the project was put out to tender in 2017; the contract was not awarded until March and was not signed until June 2018, at an event chaired by the then mayor Àngel Ros. The winning bid was 4.47 million euros and the facility was due to be ready by mid-2021. The joint venture told the Paeria that it was not feasible to carry out the whole works with that project and that budget, among other reasons because of the delay between the award and the start of the works and because of the archaeological remains found in the basement.

The final cost

According to the newspaper Ara, which reported it in April 2024, the works finally cost 6.2 million euros, of which 5.3 million went on refurbishing the building and the rest on the museum fit-out. The European Union contributed 2 million, the Catalan government’s Department of Culture 1 million, and the Diputació de Lleida another million. The Morera was closed for about five years.

Sources and verification

Information based on four media outlets: SEGRE, 10 October 2026; SEGRE, 7 November 2019; Ara, April 2024; Nació Digital, 27 August 2018, and SEGRE, June 2026 for Larrosa’s current office. The local government board’s decision could not be consulted. SEGRE’s headline puts the compensation at 30,360 euros and the body of the same article at 30,630.29 euros; this piece uses the figure in the body. The sources do not attribute the decision to suspend the works to any specific official.