The Krijers, a family of goldsmiths from La Laguna, have designed a unique work for this tribute, which combines the wind rose of the urban layout with the prestigious local baroque silverwork.
The City Council of La Laguna will recognize the professor of Art History at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Maisa Navarro Segura, with the key to the city, a tribute that is celebrated as part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the declaration of La Laguna as a World Heritage City by Unesco and for whose achievement Navarro was essential. With this distinction, the Corporation and the people of La Laguna want to thank him for his commitment to the study, dissemination and protection of the cultural heritage of its important historical site.
The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, values the “need to recognize the undeniable influence of Maisa Navarro in a milestone that has marked the evolution of the municipality in an extraordinary way. Although she has exceptional academic merits in her long professional career, her name will be linked to our history forever for her decisive contribution to the recognition of the legacy of our ancestors and the exceptional universal value of our city”.
“Her work, effort and leadership were key to achieve that, on December 4, 1999, La Laguna was the first historical complex of the Canary Islands inscribed on the list of World Heritage of Unesco, an honor and a responsibility that celebrates 25 years and that we want to remember with this distinction so important for the city,” adds Gutierrez.
The very design of the key, which has been made for the occasion by the local workshop Krijer Hermanos Orfebres, is a tribute to the roots of La Laguna, both to its own urban design and to the prestige of its silversmith tradition, which made the city the most important center of goldsmithing in the Canary Islands during the 18th century.
This workshop, the last of its kind remaining in the municipality, has created a unique work in silver that reinterprets the Rose of the Winds, present in the layout of the streets of the historic city, and which is made under the stylistic criteria of the Baroque silverware of the lagoon style.
The tribute will take place next Monday (December 2), at 6:00 p.m., in the Plenary Hall of the Town Hall. Maisa Navarro will initially give a lecture on the impact of the declaration of La Laguna as a World Heritage City, as well as the present and future challenges and opportunities. At its conclusion, the ceremony for the presentation of the key to the city will be held. The event is open to the public, until full capacity is reached.
About Maisa Navarro
Maisa Navarro has been one of the people most firmly committed to the defense of the cultural heritage of La Laguna, both publicly and through her work as a teacher and researcher at the ULL and through her contribution to the educational excellence of the many people who have passed through the classrooms of the University.
On November 1, 1998, she began to develop her work as scientific coordinator of the drafting of the application dossier for the inscription in the World Heritage List of the Historic Cultural Heritage of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, that is, the development of the essential technical justification that was necessary to initiate the file that would later lead to the recognition by Unesco.
She has participated in various scientific, technical and advisory committees. She is currently a member of the Spanish National Committee of ICOMOS, as well as of the International Scientific Committees on Cultural Routes, Historic Cities and 20th Century Heritage of this Unesco advisory body. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of TEA-Tenerife Espacio de las Artes and has been a territorial inspector of Historical Heritage for the Government of the Canary Islands, as well as a member of the editorial board of Basa magazine, published by the Official College of Architects of the Canary Islands, since its creation.
Her professional career has been recognized with various awards, mentions or distinctions, including the Elías Serra Ràfols Historical Research Award 1997, for her work “La Laguna 1500: the city – republic”, or the Accésit Group 1st Prize to Entities or Groups for planning and research work, of the National Urbanism Awards, for her collaboration in the Special Plan for the Interior Reform of the Historic Center of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1981).
Since the 1977-1978 academic year, Maisa Navarro has developed her teaching and research work at the University of La Laguna, where she has been Professor of Art History since 2010. She has directed the PhD programs in Art History and in Art and Humanities at the ULL, where she has also been academic director of the Master’s Degree in Theory and History of Art and Cultural Management.
Her production and contribution as a researcher in the field of Art History is enormous: 15 books, 177 articles, 6 technical dossiers, 10 exhibition curatorships, 55 reports for ICOMOS on World Heritage Sites and 8 inventories of art collections. Her recent publication “Canarias: arquitecturas desde el siglo XXI” is a compendium of the evolution of recent architecture in the Canary Islands, with special emphasis on critical aspects related to competitions and international context.
International conferences
She has directed and participated in international congresses, being the author of invited papers and coordinator of their organisation, as well as being responsible for the organisation of several international conference cycles. She has experience in R+D+i management and in curatorial and curatorial work, including Le Corbusier Expone (Museum of Fine Arts and Architecture, Besançon-France and Caam, Las Palmas 2011); Alberto Sartoris 1901-1998: the poetic conception of architecture (Ivam, Valencia 2000); Gaceta de Arte y su época, 1932-1936 (Caam, Las Palmas 1997).