From next Tuesday until Friday, Córdoba will host the 17th World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), the main entity that groups together World Heritage cities. This congress is held every two years and the last time a Spanish city hosted it was in Santiago de Compostela in 1999. The inauguration will take place in the Mosque-Cathedral and the sessions in the nearby Congress Palace. More than 120 of the 300 cities in the world that have heritage assets recognized by UNESCO will be represented, at the level of mayors and councilors, and the theme will be habitability. Córdoba is adorned with this great event to celebrate the 40th and 30th years, respectively, of its first declarations of World Heritage for Córdoba: that of the Mosque-Cathedral (1984) and that of the historic center, a total of 246 hectares of alleys, squares and unique houses (1994). Both have been complemented by two others, the Fiesta de los Patios (2012) and Medina Azahara (2018), which make Córdoba the first Spanish city to obtain four universal declarations. Related news Standard urban planning No The historic center faces decisive weeks for projects and. measures that protect its future Luis Miranda The City Council wants to take advantage of the showcase of the World Congress of Heritage Cities in SeptemberHeritage is the cultural heritage of a community’s past, appreciated and maintained in the present and obliged to be transmitted to future generations and Cordoba It reflects its importance in the history in which it was three times capital: of Roman Baetica, of the Umayyad Caliphate and of the Christian frontier during the Reconquista. These periods have given our city an exceptional real estate and furniture heritage, a list of characters of the first magnitude and an intangible historical foundation that is part of the soul of Cordoba and permeates its inhabitants. Like all cities, it suffered acts of vandalism in the 19th century, French invasions, confiscations and demolitions of walls, which liquidated much of this heritage, but, unlike others, in the 20th century it was able to preserve what had survived. We were the first city to receive the Royal Decree-Law of 1926 on the Protection and Conservation of Artistic Wealth, to protect the most important area of the city: the historic center. Successive Urban Plans have continued this protection, extending it to all the neighborhoods of the old quarters of Villa and Ajerquía. And among all this are the people, without whom heritage has no reason to exist. The helmet cannot be a monumental decoration but rather a habitable place that can be enjoyed, first and foremost, by those who inhabit it. Córdoba magnifies everything it touches, so it magnifies us and enriches the people of Córdoba. What do we, the people of Córdoba, do to enhance and enrich Córdoba? Well, each one with their share of responsibility, respectful care, honest work or the promulgation of regulations that make the historic center habitable.
