Spain’s cultural heritage, an internationally recognised treasure

Enhancing these assets is a way of maintaining cultural diversity and of ensuring that traditions, social practices or festive events of the different populations are passed on, which stimulates exchange and respect between cultures.

In total, Spain has 73 assets included on UNESCO’s heritage lists (World Heritage List and Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage). Among them, 50 are cultural and natural assets, such as the Alhambra, the Doñana National Park, the Segovia aqueduct, Monte Perdido and the Atapuerca archaeological site. The list also includes cities like Toledo, Ávila and Cáceres.

The fifteen Spanish cities with World Heritage status are grouped together in a non-profit association that every September organises ‘Heritage Night’, an evening during which the most emblematic heritage sites and their historic centres are transformed into stages for cultural activities open to local residents and visitors.

Environmental impact assessment required if a development project is located on a UNESCO World Heritage site

The list is rounded off by twenty intangible events, such as bell-ringing carried out by hand, the Mediterranean diet, flamenco or the Fallas festival, and three good practice projects for safeguarding the intangible heritage recognised by UNESCO.

These good practices allow positive experiences and examples of safeguarding to be shared to ensure that living heritage is passed on to future generations. They should also function as models that can be adapted to other traditions and cultural expressions.

Sustainable management of cultural heritage

Making culture an essential public good is one of the main focuses for the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The aim is for Member States to use culture as a unifying element in societies, and as a fundamental pillar for a more sustainable future, not only environmentally, but also economically and socially.

Another of the Spanish Presidency’s major commitments is to address the sustainable management of culture as the territory’s backbone and as a mechanism to promote the circular economy, social inclusion and the green transition.

In this context, Spain has published the ‘Green Paper for sustainable management of cultural heritage’, which aims to become a guide for the sector that favours sustainable development of heritage and facilitates collective work at the European level.

Thus, the aim is to move towards building a common management model to face current and future challenges, ensure the alignment of national policies with international ones and promote evaluation and control mechanisms.

Cultural programme of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

SOURCE: PRESS RELEASE – – SPANISH PRESIDENCYCOUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION