Ourense promotes the rehabilitation of the Old Prison and protected housing

The Ourense City Council publishes in the Official Gazette of the Province of Ourense on August 28, 2026, the Dinamization Plan for the Ourense Rexurbe Area, a document that articulates the recovery of the historic center and includes as a prominent action the rehabilitation of the Cárcere Vello (Old Prison), with an estimated budget of nearly €4,000,000. The plan, drafted by the consultancy Estratega Consulting Global, S.L. in December 2025, appears in section IV of Local Entities of the gazette (edict 352177).

The document is born under the framework of Law 1/2019, of April 22, on rehabilitation and urban regeneration and renewal of Galicia, which creates the figure of Rexurbe areas to reverse the emptying of historic centers. Ourense, which has had its Historic-Artistic Complex declared since September 12, 1975, and an Integral Rehabilitation Area since 1998, now delimits a scope of 19.5 hectares with 1,065 buildings and 3,121 dwellings.

A historic center in crisis

The plan’s diagnosis is blunt: 59.25% of the buildings in the area are in a ruinous, poor, or deficient state, and residential and commercial occupancy is at minimums. The most striking data are:

• 40.78% of dwellings are empty.
• 858 of the 960 commercial premises are closed, which represents 89.38% of empty commercial-use properties.
• Only 102 commercial premises are occupied, compared to 132 restaurants and cafes with 5,200 seats.

Rehabilitation of the Cárcere Vello

Action A1.2.c of the plan promotes the transformation of the building at rúa Progreso 45, the old Cárcere Vello, with a preliminary project and an estimated budget of nearly €4,000,000. A future mixed educational and administrative use is foreseen, being valued as a municipal multipurpose space or headquarters for the UNED, as well as its connection to the Barbaña river path and the surrounding gardens. The action could have the support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Universities and Vocational Training and the COAG.

Protected housing in the center

The plan collects the trajectory of agreements with the Galician Institute of Housing and Land (IGVS) to recover buildings for protected housing, with a total of 20 VPP (protected housing) planned, of which 5 have already been executed:

• Rúa Vilar 1, 3 and 5: 5 VPP executed, with an IGVS investment of nearly €900,000.
• Rúa Colón 8 and 16: 6 VPP planned, following an acquisition of €367,628.44.
• Rúa Cervantes 29: 1 VPP planned.
• Rúa Pelaio 9: 1 VPP under execution.
• Rúa Manuel Sueiro 3: 5 VPP under execution.
• Rúa Manuel Sueiro 2: 2 VPP planned.

The plan also contemplates the drafting of a new PEPOU (Special Plan for the Protection of Urban Heritage) for the old city, with an estimated budget of €560,000 and an approval horizon in 2028, as well as the transformation of the ARI office into a Rexurbe Center.

The relevance of the plan lies in the fact that it jointly addresses the housing crisis and the heritage abandonment of Ourense’s historic center, combining the recovery of emblematic buildings such as the Old Prison with the market introduction of protected housing in an area where nearly half of the dwellings are vacant.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Ourense, August 28, 2026, section IV. Local Entities (official reference: edict 352177).