It was a simple complaint on Facebook, one more, but this one “overflowed”. Orlando Saiz expressed on a page on Romanesque art on this social network his anger at the attitude of visitors to a 12th-century church in the municipality of Puentedey (Burgos), where he works as a volunteer with another colleague. “We open the church about six hours a day and, of course, we do not charge volunteers. We explain the history and works of the Church with the knowledge we have, which is extensive, even though we are not art history teachers,” he said, to clarify the reason for his discomfort: “A hundred people passed by yesterday, some of whom 30 stayed more than five minutes to see it and, of these, 15 listened to what we humbly tell them.
The Burgos resident concludes: “It is not worth devoting our time and knowledge to this type of tourism, so it is likely that we will no longer do this altruistic work.” He concludes by adding: “Then they will complain that no one opens the church, that no one knows where the key is or that the archbishopric is very bad.”
Far from going unnoticed, the attack on sincerity has found the solidarity of almost a thousand people and the comments of support of two hundred Internet users in the face of what, according to these opinions, is a generalized situation. “We have become mobile tourists: I arrive, I take 15 photos, if I can, I visit four places in the day, and so I have 60 images. In September, I return to Madrid and show them to my friends,” describes the volunteer from Puentedey, professionally dedicated to business training.
“It’s like someone getting married to show off their wedding photos,” he says ironically. For him, the moral is obvious: “There is no real interest in the novel, maybe there shouldn’t be.” Nor is there a commitment to heritage. The hundreds of daily visits to the temple leave only about ten euros in donations to support the temple of San Pelayo.
The volunteer’s anger is surely aggravated by the tourist overflow that our country is currently experiencing. The record statistics affecting sun and beach destinations – more than 90 million foreign visitors are expected, and Spain is already the second most visited country after France – are accompanied for the first time by banners and demonstrations in overexploited destinations and are encouraging, at the same time, an increased demand for rural tourism, with specific symptoms of saturation, led by national travelers.
In his case, Puentedey – a municipality with 50 registered inhabitants that only has about fifteen inhabitants in winter – receives more than 50,000 visits a year, among other things thanks to its membership in the network of the “Most Beautiful Towns in Spain”. “After Covid and the economic crisis, it seems that the Spanish have already eaten up their savings and everyone is dedicating themselves to domestic tourism,” says Orlando Saiz, who has appreciated a novelty in his town: “We are starting to receive tourists who had never come from Ciudad Real, Jaén, Murcia… they are families who want to leave the 45 degrees south and come north with a car and a large caravan, which is not too expensive.”
Consequences for heritage
But what impact does this have on the heritage? “The tourist arrives, walks around the town, climbs to the highest point, where the church is, and leaves,” says Saiz. “Those who are really interested, write to us, volunteers, and if we can, we will show them the temple,” he adds. However, in general, “it is mobile tourism.” For the resident of Puentedey, this common circumstance arises from the normalized situations of the 21st century.
“Now, everyone is a tourist and every point is a point of tourist interest,” he points out with irony. Orlando Saiz, however, distinguishes this type of domestic tourism from the millionaire business of sun and beach destinations, where the crisis of tourist apartments is getting worse. “In our case, we have barely 50 inhabitants and we have two bars: there is no business linked to travelers,” he maintains.
Economic consequences, no, but a lack of interest and education. “They are anecdotal, but they exist. This is what I call the atheist’s posture. You talk to them about churches, which are also people’s lives, but they don’t listen to you,” he sums up, and adds: “There is a certain disinterest in heritage. You tell them that a temple is a thousand years old, some ask you and others show no interest.
The consequences of this type of behavior are seen in the fatigue of the volunteers who frequent the temples. “I dedicate myself to sports and other activities on a voluntary and amateur basis, and I think that it will not work. We have scheduled free tours of the city, lasting an hour and a half, and no one has signed up. They look at you strangely because it is free,” Saiz reflects.
However, any type of compensation or remuneration runs head-on into the tourist legislation that regulates each autonomous community and that protects the figure of the official guide, qualified and authorized to exercise this function. “From what I have read, if you make a visit, a civil guard will come and get you and give you a fine of 900 euros the first time; the second is 6,000,” says the volunteer. “Either you are qualified and qualified, or there is nothing to do,” he concludes. Yes, they are visible, judging by the comments on social networks, the support of people interested (in this case, by Romanesque art) who are grateful, in public and private, for explanations like those offered in the temple of Puentedey.
An endless controversy
The legislation is clear, as is the problem that rural areas of communities such as Castilla y León, the region with the greatest heritage in Europe, have. According to Orlando Saiz, both in Puentedey and in other small municipalities with monuments of historical and artistic interest, it happens that “the official guides are where the business is, in the cathedral of Burgos or León, but they do not come to the small towns and, if you do this work, they denounce you. The inhabitant of the city of Burgos also explains that “the guides only come in organized groups, we open the temples to them, they visit and leave, and they do not even leave a donation.”
Faced with this situation and the complexity of opening temples in rural areas where there are practically no inhabitants – the figure of the guardian who keeps the keys to the temple is being lost, due to depopulation – Orlando Saiz proposes the creation of “a local guide, where the agent does not reach.
The Puentedey resident refers to the experience carried out in Euskadi, whose government has developed a training programme for residents (lasting 200 hours), so that they can explain to visitors the aspects related to the culture and social life of their village. According to him, the implementation of similar initiatives in communities such as Castilla y León could provide a solution to the current demand. Otherwise, “we run the risk of the rural heritage remaining closed… and ending up falling”.
