The initiative, especially designed for residents over 60 years of age, also aims to gather the knowledge and experiences of the participants.
Older Heritage Route
The Councillor for Cultural Heritage of the City Council of La Laguna, Adolfo Cordobés, and the art historian, official tourist guide and collaborator of Adaris Canarias, Elisa Falcón, today presented a new edition of the programme ‘Seniors, living La Laguna World Heritage’. This joint initiative will offer twenty guided and adapted routes to, from inside the walls of three buildings of important historical and artistic value, go through the development of the city and its impact on America, a proposal that will delve into cultural relations and migratory exchanges and that, among its most important aspects, wants to collect and disseminate the memory of the participants.
This action, which is already well established and in great demand among the over-60s in the municipality, is not only part of the activities to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the inclusion of La Laguna on the World Heritage List, but also forms part of a broader programme of dissemination, designed to reach different age groups and communities. All of this is based on the premise that ‘transmitting knowledge about heritage is essential to guarantee its safeguarding’.
This was explained by Adolfo Cordobés, who recalled that, ‘in La Laguna, we understand that the protection of heritage requires an individual and collective commitment. In addition to working on all the regulatory and administrative aspects, with the creation of the Office of Integral Management of the Historic City, the first Management Plan for the Historic City and the updating of the Special Protection Plan, we must continue to raise awareness in society of the importance of preserving and valuing heritage as a living part of our identity’.
‘And we do this by reinforcing the dissemination of our important historical and cultural values among residents throughout the municipality, with initiatives specially designed for different age groups. These new routes, adapted to people over 60 years old, will not only open the doors of different historic buildings, but will also be an opportunity to create a space to meet with history, experiences and personal memory,’ added the councillor.
In this edition, through guided visits to three central buildings of the local heritage, those attending will be able to explore the historical relations between the Canary Islands and America, through architecture, art, documentation, religious manifestations and the human experience of migrations.
For this year, the Salazar Palace has been chosen, the seat of the Bishopric, which has been in great demand in previous editions; the Fonseca Baulén House, which houses the Documentation Centre of the Canary Islands and America (Cedocam), and the Anchieta House, which will house the first interpretation centre on the international figure of the saint from La Laguna.
Three examples of heritage recovery
‘Three buildings that are also examples of recovery and new uses that respect the heritage, and that allow us to contextualise the Outstanding Universal Value of the city, as well as the criteria of the Unesco Operational Guidelines that have earned La Laguna its inclusion on the World Heritage list’, as Elisa Falcón pointed out, who recalled that the activities have been designed to be comfortable and adapted to the mobility needs of the group.
The Adaris Canarias collaborator explained that, ‘facilitating knowledge of heritage from the inside, providing access to listed buildings and historical sites, allows older people to expand and specify their knowledge of history and heritage through specific examples, but also to share experiences and anecdotes that can be of great interest’.
In this sense, he said that ‘older people in the municipality often receive more cultural and informative offers aimed at visiting external places than at learning about their own history and heritage. On the other hand, they are an important group to vindicate and make visible, given that they treasure a memory of history that is usually only transmitted orally’.
‘That is why this project also aims to create a space in which they can express themselves and where the experts in charge of teaching the activity become, at the same time, recipients and future transmitters of this knowledge’, he added.
This initiative, specifically aimed at people over 60 years of age, starts on 24 April and will end on 29 May, with 20 free routes, which will allow up to a thousand people to take part, as places are limited to 50 per route. Those interested can obtain all the information and register in the associations and groups of older people in the towns and neighbourhoods of La Laguna, or by e-mail. info@adariscanarias.com
About Adaris Canarias
The organisation Adaris Canarias is a platform for collaboration between professionals from different disciplines to design social actions linked to education, culture, leisure, health, tourism and the environment. It is committed to cross-cutting relationships between professionals, organisations and institutions, with social responsibility as the way forward in optimising results.