From the ground to the top of the Lugano Tower in Benidorm is 158-metres that from 2008 to 2021 was the tallest residential building in Spain, a distinction that has now been assumed by its neighbour Intempo which, at 202 metres, is today the tallest residential building in the country and in Europe.
Nevertheless, the Lugano Tower is still the third tallest skyscraper in Benidorm (after the Intempo and the Hotel Bali) and the tenth in Spain, rising well above the rest of its neighbours due to its location on the slopes of the Serra Gelada.
Its silhouette is well known as it forms part of the skyline of the tourist capital of the Costa Blanca and now it features in a video that has gone viral as a result of a British man climbing its facade in bare feet and without using any type of safety equipment that, in the event of a fall, might save his life.
With more than 34,000 followers on his Instagram account, the central character in this story operates under the nickname @nuisance69_ and comes from Manchester.
The video in question appeared on Friday afternoon and shows images of a ‘free solo climb’, the English term for this endeavour that in Spanish translates as ‘integral solo’ and refers to the practice of climbing without using safety devices or equipment, that is, without a harness, ropes or slings. In other words, exposing oneself to certain death in the event of a fall.
As the story’s protagonist himself explains in the text accompanying his video, “I wanted to climb this building from the day I saw it, but I had never been close to it.” Now that he has done it, he says he is “very happy.”
As @nuisance69 explains, “it was very dusty and uncomfortable, but I enjoyed every second of it.”
The climber says that it took him “34 minutes” to complete one climb, “having to stop at every floor to check if people were looking out of the windows, checking each piece of metal individually to see if it was safe enough to support my weight.”
He then completed his (dubious) feat by “lying down on the roof.”