- Santiago de Compostela organizes the general meeting of the group of heritage cities, chaired by the mayor of Santiago, Goretti Sanmartín, where promotion actions were approved
- The promotion of World Heritage assets includes days and collaboration with the university domain. Additionally, «Heritage Night, hasta Noite do Heritage, Nit del Heritage,» the major cultural event to promote historic districts, will take place on Saturday, September 13. The program will be presented starting from July 1, coinciding with the city of Segovia assuming the presidency of the group.
- The intense agenda of the Santiago group this weekend included the award for heritage at the award ceremony in Alcazar in Segovia
The General Assembly of the World Heritage Cities Group, meeting in Santiago de Compostela, approved today the boost of international promotion of the UNESCO World Heritage of the 15 cities with a calendar that includes a meeting with the UNESCO Ambassador; Exhibitions of universal values of cities in Bolivia or Rome, as well as days and meetings to promote heritage assets on university days.
According to the President of the World Heritage Cities Group and the Mayor of Santiago de Compostela, Goretti Sanmartín, «we have approved the 2025 operational plan that focuses on prioritizing actions aligned with the strategic objective of addressing new challenges that arise to support the sustainability of heritage cities, especially on issues related to the conservation of our historic centers and with the aim of strengthening the group’s position in all matters related to heritage preservation, maintenance, and dissemination. In this regard, we will hold a full assembly meeting with the ambassador at UNESCO, Miquel Iceta. This meeting will take place in Paris, presumably, in the first half of the year.
Within this international calendar, according to the president, «always with an eye on compatible synergies between heritage, culture, and tourism, we promote a series of actions aimed at promoting the 15 cities focused on strengthening cultural identity. One of them is an exhibition in the official and historical capital of Bolivia. This exhibition will take place in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID «.
«We are also working on a more ambitious exhibition project to be present at the end of the year at the Spanish Academy in Rome,» he added. It is a photographic exhibition that reflects, with a contemporary artistic language, the heritage value of our cities, especially the exceptional view, which compiles the heritage declaration of each city. This project is the result of a working meeting that took place in January with the Director General of Plastic Arts of the Ministry of Culture, Angeles Albert «. Both exhibitions are linked to tourism, culture, and heritage: «The exhibition of the Spanish Academy in Rome, we want its itinerancy to continue with other centers in Italy, as it is an important market for transmitting the market. We will also work, so that the exhibition from Bolivia travels, with the aim of capturing that responsible visitor who wants to know the uniqueness and particular culture of the places they visit», in the words of Goretti Sanmartín.
In the same vein, he emphasized that the main cultural event of the international promotion of the monumental historic districts of the 15 cities, «The heritage night, hasta Noite Heritage, Nit del Heritage,» already had data: «I have decided that the eighth edition will take place on Saturday, September 13,» he announced. The entire program, as usual, will be presented in July in the city that chairs the group at that time. The city of Segovia will take over the presidency of the group on July 1.
The drive towards heritage protection will also extend to the university environment: «Our concern for the protection of heritage assets will reach the academic and training field, technical meetings and seminars that we will announce. Salamanca will organize an important day to reflect on the protection of monuments on April 2 and 3, with high-level speakers. Additionally, I proposed to the Menéndez Pelayo International University to include in its summer course program, the International Seminar «World heritage and local management: theory and reality».
Protection and preservation will be another step, after presenting the heritage collection of the cities with the Director of the Cervantes Institute, in September».
Other strategic lines of work approved by the Assembly were the approval of a promotional action in Dublin, in collaboration with Turespaña and Paradores, which will take place in November and the design of a project analysis and evaluation of the promotion actions carried out by the group. «This data analysis and impact evaluation project is particularly important because we are cities united under our World Heritage status, but with different situations and, therefore, different cases and needs,» detailed the group’s president, who announced that the group is also launching a new updated edition of the professional circuit, as well as in the professional circuit, as well as in the professional circuit.
After the meeting, a working session took place with the urban planning advisor, Vivende and Cidade Historical, Iago Lestegás, to delve into two issues that concern the group: «Economic activity in historic cities and, in particular, economic activity related to local trade and the regulation of tourist houses. Two very current issues in the entire state context, but in the case of cities like ours, if possible, more relevant, as it affects the historic ensembles that we want to remain inhabited, lived in, and with social, cultural, and economic dynamism.
The intense day also included the reception of the mayors of the group by the rector of the University of Santiago de Compostela, Antonio López Díaz, at Pazo de San Xerome, the rector’s headquarters, to link the group with the academic field and universities. The program of the World Heritage Cities group in Santiago de Compostela this weekend included the award ceremony for the Heritage Prize to Alcazar from Segovia.
The five cities of the Executive Committee are part of the Assembly, composed of the President of the Group and the Mayor of Santiago de Compostela, Goretti Sanmartín; the first vice president and mayor of Segovia, José Mazarías; the second vice president and mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñals; the third vice president and mayor of Toledo, Carlos Velázquez; along with the mayor of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez.
Joining them are the first and the first of: Alcalá de Henares (Judith Piquet); Ávila (Jesús Manuel Sánchez Cabrera), Baza (Pedro Cabrera), Cáceres (Rafael Mateos), Córdoba (José María Bellido), Cuenca (Darío Dolz), Ibiza/Eivissa (Rafael Trigoero), Salaman (Antotonio Rodonio Rodonio), Osuna), Salaman), Salaman), Salaman), Salaman), Salaman). (Antotonio Rodríguez Osuna), Salaman (Antonio Rodríguez Osuna), Salaman (Antonio Rodríguez Osuna), Salaman (Antonio Rodríguez Osuna), Salaman (Antonio. In the Assembly of Santiago, Adolfo Cordobés (San Cristóbal de La LaunoN) participated; Ángel Orgaz (Cáceres), Felipe González (Mérid), Lourdes Morales (Córdoba), and May Escobar (Segovia).
