Vélez-Málaga Council has awarded the contract to equip the Museo de la Piedra (Stone Museum) and according to the Councillor for Culture, Sara Sánchez (PSOE), the facility will open to the public in the first quarter of 2011.
This will be the second museum in Vélez-Málaga, the other being the Museo de Semana Santa in the Santa Maria church.
The new museum is located in the old Valle-Niza quarry which forms part of the ancient hermitage from the VIII and IX centuries.
The equipping of the museum is costing €131,820 and is being financed by the Council and the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Sports through the Plan for Sustainable Tourism in the Axarquia.
The completion time for this stage of the project has been set at two months.
The old Valle-Niza quarry area was the subject of an investment of €1,200,000 during the period 2003 to 2006, with the area being cleaned up, old buildings demolished and the construction of tracks and footpaths.
The area has been closed to the public for the past four years but will soon become an important tourist complex.
The area will have three distinct sections: the old stone house and the chapel, which will house the interpretative centre, the old settlement and cave paintings which formed part of the Mozarabic church and the XIX quarry area with various pathways and viewpoints.