Heritage management from the municipal level: new prospects for the future for Aroche (Huelva)

Abstract

The rural world is facing a real threat in recent times, which endangers not only a way of life, but also the historical-archaeological heritage treasured for centuries. This threat, more popular as “emptied Spain”, motivated the initiation of specific European policies decades ago, which have not yet had an echo at the national or regional level, despite the fact that the problem is increasingly evident. The loss of population and the risk of loss of heritage motivate the emergence in Aroche (Huelva) in 2004 of the Heritage Project, a municipal initiative of integral management of heritage, whose objectives are framed in the four links of the value chain: research, protection, conservation and socialization of heritage. These objectives are linked to promoting sustainable social, cultural and economic development of a rural inland municipality of just 3,000 inhabitants. After more than sixteen years of uninterrupted history, the Heritage Project has managed to know, protect, conserve and deliver to society a large part of its heritage, in addition to generating broad cultural and social development, and incipient economic development with the generation of employment and the increase in tourism.