The Historical Heritage area of Tenerife Council, chaired by Councilor José Miguel Ruano, allocates a sum of 1.6 million euros within the framework of the 2023-2029 island program to the preparation of municipal catalogs of heritage assets of fifteen of the 31 municipalities on the Island. The initiative It thus responds to the projects presented by the councils themselves. The objective of the subsidy line is “to guarantee the conservation and safeguarding of the cultural heritage of the Island.” The exact amount is 1,687,500 euros to be distributed based on the inventory of the movable and immovable value of the heritage jewels carried out by the island technicians.
The island director of Historical Heritage, Isabel de Esteban, highlights the “importance of promoting this type of protection and development elements as fundamental tools to guarantee the regulation and protection of the Island’s heritage.” She also adds, “that we must comply with the deadlines established by the Cultural Heritage Law of Canary Islands11/2019 to write or update the catalogues.
De Esteban remembers that “this aid is included within the framework of the Insular Historical Heritage Program 2023-2027 that establishes what our competency framework is. The island director explains that “the town councils have presented their economic proposals and we have responded to the extent of budgetary possibilities for this year.” The intention, she emphasizes, “is to reach everyone or the vast majority in the coming years.” The priority now, he points out, is “to help the municipalities draft this document if they do not have it or to update it if they have already prepared it.”
Action objects
The global allocation of 1.6 million euros is intended for the preparation of the heritage catalogs of La Laguna, La Orotava, Buenavista del Norte, San Juan de la Rambla, Garachico, La Guancha, La Matanza, Arafo, El Rosario, Guía de Isora, San Miguel de Abona, Tacoronte, Los Realejos, Granadilla de Abona and Fasnia.
Also included in the subsidy are the Teno Rural Park Catalog (except Masca); updating the cataloging of collections of movable artistic property of municipal ownership in La Orotava; the Catalog of the Special Plan for the Protection of the Historic Complex of the Historic Center of San Cristóbal de La Laguna and the Catalog of the General Planning Plan of the latter municipality.
Heritage experts explain that “practically all of the catalogs in Tenerife “They are not updated to the determinations and objectives of the Canary Islands Cultural Heritage Law, 2019.” This means “running the risk that there are real estate properties that, although they should be protected for their historical or architectural values (or both), are not.”
The sources add that “those fifteen municipalities need to update their catalogues, including that of La Laguna, which is part of its Special Protection Plan.”
The other major regulatory urban planning instrument, in addition to the catalogues, are the Special Plans for the Protection of Historic Sites. The Island has 25, of which only 5 have this document drawn up. These are the one in the El Toscal neighborhood, in Santa Cruz, and those in the historic centers of La Laguna, Tegueste, La Orotava and Los Silos.
The historical heritage is protected through these two means: catalogs and Special Protection Plans. Both obey different cases and coexist. The catalogs individually protect fundamentally real estate assets. They provide it with a certain degree of protection.
Regarding the Special Plans, they represent urban planning instruments of a sectoral nature provided for in the Law of Land and Protected Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands and in the Law of Cultural Heritage. They propose protection of the entire set or core that regulates and orders. Within a historical complex with a Special Protection Plan there may be assets that are also catalogued.
The experts consulted by this newspaper assess that prioritizing the promotion of one instrument (catalog) over another (Plan) “from a technical point of view could be due to the complexity of approving a Special Plan, very similar to a General Planning Plan.” But the consequence of twenty historic complexes on the Island not having a Plan is that “the Cabildo assumes the powers to resolve regarding the authorization of the change of a door, a window or the painting of a façade.”
These experts launch the idea of ”developing in parallel an Island Heritage Plan through the processing of an Island Protection Catalog.”
