On Monday, Andalusia will approve a new draft cultural heritage law

The Government Council gave the green light last February At the beginning of the preparation of the new cultural heritage lawwhich will replace the current standard on this matter from 2007 to strengthen the presence of intangible and artificial heritage and explicitly integrate audiovisual heritage as a novelty.

As the then Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, explained, The future standard also seeks to enhance citizen participation and awarenessas well as simplifying management, combining enhanced economic activity and maximum respect for heritage values.

According to the council, The regulatory, jurisprudential and cultural changes recorded during these approximately eighteen years are both at the national level As an international organization, it advises conducting an “in-depth review” of property regulation and adapting it to current realities.

The standard envisages heritage protection as an incidental element of the general work of the Council of Andalusia, integrating it into sectoral policies related to education, research, regional planning, urban planning, landscape, water, environment, protected spaces, sustainability, agriculture, livestock, rural development, tourism, energy, mining, handicrafts, social services, accessibility and anything else that may have an impact on cultural heritage.

Bill Orders the legal system for the assets of cultural heritage in Andalusia According to the level of protection of assets (properties of cultural interest, those of the most relevant value, declared by the State Council; assets of heritage interest, those of special cultural importance, declared by order of the competent ministry on the matter, and indexed assets, which accommodate assets listed by municipal councils in urban catalogues) and depending on whether their nature is immovable, movable or intangible, as well as the integration of specializations dealing with special heritage types such as ethnic or industrial, of great importance for rural development.

New category: cultural landscape

In addition to the traditional categories of properties (monument, historical complex, historic park, historic site, archaeological area, place of ethnic interest, place of industrial importance and heritage area) The cultural landscape is added, which includes those areas with socially recognized material and intangible values.Cultural methods, that is, methods that are part, or were in the past, of expression and communication in the Andalusian lands.

In parallel, the Council highlights the simplification of regulations for collective and advisory bodies. So, The Andalusian Council for Historical Heritage becomes the Andalusian Council for Cultural Heritage The existing Real Estate, Furniture and Ethnology committees were merged into one committee called the Cultural Assets Committee. At the same time, the Antiquities and Museums Authority was maintained and the Documentary Heritage Authority, which was no longer necessary after the Archives Law was passed in 2011, was abolished.

Another novelty is Creation of a chapter dedicated for the first time to UNESCO World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritagewhich establishes a regulation to address initiatives related to World Heritage Lists, as well as Lists of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, including the basic requirements that must be met by properties proposed by the Autonomous Community.

A new title dedicated entirely to research, education and dissemination of cultural heritage has also been introduced. In this sense, investigation constitutes one of the basic and essential elements in protecting property, because it allows for this Get to know our heritage better by delving deeper into the values ​​inherent in it. Likewise, promotion measures, such as sponsoring interventions related to cultural heritage, play an important role.