There is no Herculaneum who has not heard of the Bardin stadium, the predecessor of the La Viña and Rico Pérez fields where today the Alicante team barely survives. There is no Alicante with an interest in local culture who does not know Casa Bardin, today the headquarters of the Gil-Albert Institute. But it is likely that many of them are unaware of who named these properties so linked to the recent history of Alicante.
To remedy this lack comes the exhibition “René Bardin, historical footprint of Alicante”, which shows, among unpublished photographs belonging to the family collection, the life story of a businessman, humanist and diplomat whose footprint is more present in the city than what is known. the majority knows and believes.
Like other precursors of families of French origin today well established in local society, it was wine that still in the 19th century brought Théophile-René Bardin – born in 1858 in Douai, in the north of the French country – to Alicante. The phylloxera plague devastated the vineyards that he inherited from his family, so he traveled to Spain, first to La Rioja, in search of vines. He soon moved to Alicante, attracted by its climate, the quality of its vineyards and the vitality of a city that was experiencing a flourishing era, with a port in full commercial bustle.
These were the days of growth of the Alicante Ensanche, and Bardin had a house built at number 44 San Fernando Street, an area highly appreciated by the Alicante bourgeoisie in which other French families such as the Maisonnaves or the Dupuys were integrated.
The residence was completed in 1901 and today, converted into the headquarters of the Juan Gil-Albert Institute of Culture, dependent on the Provincial Council, you can still see the elegant façade, which was preserved in the renovation of the property. Writers and artists passed through it, such as Saint-Exupéry -author of The Little Prince- or the pianist Gonzalo Soriano.
Like several of his compatriots, Bardin held important positions in local society, such as the vice-presidency of the Royal Regatta Club, he was honorary consul of France and founded the French College, the seed of the current Lyceum, which coincidentally moved very close a few years ago. of Bardin’s second residence, the ‘Villa Marco’ estate, located in the Huerta de Alicante, which he adapted to the French modernist and colonial style, and today is considered one of the most beautiful elements of the cultural heritage of El Campello.
Bardin’s first wife was María del Rosario Mas and when she died – in 1913 – he married Dolores Alberola Gomis from Alicante.
One of his sons, Renato Bardin Mas, was a director of the Hércules Football Club, and his father contributed to the construction of the stadium that would bear his name, inaugurated in 1932, giving up some land he owned in the Benalúa neighborhood. There he played for Hércules until the mid-1950s when he moved to the La Viña field, the immediate predecessor of the current Rico Pérez.
But apart from the review of the biography of the illustrious character, the exhibition that can be seen in the basements of the Provincial Council offers a very interesting sample of photographs belonging to the family that offer a suggestive panorama of Alicante at the time: its types, its customs and their landscapes.
Among the graphic documents, 39 photographs, mostly taken by Bardin himself and guarded until now by his descendants, Rocío René Mille and René Bardin, include Alfonso XIII’s visit to the city, bonfire monuments from the 1930s, and such significant places in the province as the old Ifach inn.
