Valladolid to become international capital of heritage restoration

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On 31 October and 1 and 2 November, Valladolid became the international capital of heritage restoration. Top experts in heritage asset management and restoration met at the 6th International Conference “Restoring Memory”, held as part of the AR&PA Fair, demonstrating the very latest models used in this field in Europe and America.

There has been a great progress in the techniques, methods and criteria used in heritage conservation and, nowadays, modern thinking is seen as the best way to manage heritage sites in order to guarantee their authenticity and, at the same time, their ability to create economic wealth, employment and social resources, as well as to ensure their long-term sustainability.

One of the main issues focused on at this meeting was the management of the World Heritage Cities. Italian experts Carlo Canato, Manuel Guido, Giuseppe Cristinelli, Maria Paola Borgarino and Patricia Marzaro illustrated this using case study examples of Italian cities, including Venice and the Villas of the Veneto, based on techniques that can be transferred to other countries.

The management of other heritage complexes requiring extensive action at regional level was also discussed, such as the chateaux of the Loire, the Pont du Gard and the historical city of the Alhambra in Granada, the most visited site in Spain and one of the most important in the world. These sites were described by the experts Dominique Tremblay (France), Bernard Pouverel (France) and María del Mar Villafranca (Spain), President of the Board of Trustees of the Alhambra, respectively.

One of the most remarkable heritage case studies in the Americas involves the excavation, restoration and management of the Huaca de la Luna, in Peru, which won the International Reina Sofia Prize, and is being restored by the World Monuments Fund under the direction of Ricardo Morales.

Other prestigious and interesting national and international cultural projects currently ongoing include the Sueño de la Luz (Dream of Light) initiative at the Cathedral of León, the work being done on the façade of the church of San Pablo in Valladolid and the excavations at the Cathedral of Vitoria, all of which are of international stature.

Other heritage management examples, these being of a monastic ruin, a town and a regional landscape, at San Lorenzo de Guardiola, Albarracín (Teruel) and the cultural landscape of the Ensenada de Bolonia, were described by their directors Antoni González, Antonio Jiménez and Silvia Fernández Cacho, and Isabel Durán.