Dubrovnik, Kyiv, Porto, Tarragona. There are 117 cities from five continents that are part of the Cities Organization. World Heritage and just naming them out loud elicits gestures of admiration. Many have appreciated its beauty and others dream of doing so one day.
If now in Cordoba they are spoken of not externally, to spread their attractiveness and promote visits, but internally, to speak of the challenges that they Municipal councils and their managers to make their lives easier. That is, not for those who want to know them for a few days, but for those who work and live there permanently.
From this Tuesday until the end of this week, Córdoba is the center of experiences and knowledge on the management of monumental cities, at the Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), which will be analyzed from different points of view and strategic axes remains that thus have places of great heritage value, but which present common problems, from the conservation of their traditional inhabitants to traffic management and the fight against the effects of ever-increasing heat.
A great act in Mosque-Cathedral This served as the opening of a few days of work that will not end until next Friday, but that are in no way an exception to the usual trend of the Heritage Cities, which have analyzed all these challenges in recent years. It ended with the interpretation of Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” by the Cordoba Orchestra.
The first intervention was that of the Papal Nuncio in Spain, Bernardito Cleopas Auzawhich transmitted a message from Francis in which he recalled that cities “speak of cities and people, of a history that unfolds with one look to the past and another to the future.”
The Secretary of State for Housing and the Urban Agenda of the Central Government, David Lucashighlighted the effort to invest in heritage, reflected in the actions and in the 2 percent cultural, and “to make the historic centers more habitable, so that they are recovered for life.”
“Cities have problems that require urgent action to make them more accessible”
Juanma Moreno
President of the Government of Andalusia
The mayor of Cordoba, Jose Maria Bellidoas host of the event, assured that the future of cities “must be based on sustainability, management of natural resources and the promotion of renewable energies.” Technology, in this sense, must be an ally for the management of historic cities and for the lives of their neighbors.
He opted for “real co-governance, which involves neighbours in decision-making and gives them the feeling of being part of it”. “We want the Historic centers “These are living, dynamic territories, where we live together and strengthen ties,” he signed, before recalling the obligation to “take care of the heritage received from our ancestors.”
The President of the OVPM and Mayor of QuebecBruno Marchand, insisted that cities “face the same challenges, wherever they are”, and that it is the climate and social crises that put them under pressure. “They are particularly vulnerable” and it is important that they have “a new urban project “in which are grouped the policies, strategies and development projects that change things.”
As explained by the head of the Tourism and World Heritage Unit of the City Council of Córdoba, Rafael Perez of the ShellThe congress held in Cordoba, the 17th of those that have taken place so far, comes after a long work begun in Quebec two years ago.
The conclusions of the work carried out during this congress were reflected in the Quebec Roadmap, to which the participating cities adhered, and at that time, after many joint actionsThe results of the experiments discussed there are shared.
“The future must be based on sustainability, efficiency and the promotion of renewable energies”
Jose Maria Bellido
Mayor of Cordoba
The strategic axes that we have talked about and that will be debated in the coming days are the way to reclassify the habitatrefreshing the city, transforming mobility and regenerating the urban environment.
As Rafael Pérez de la Concha recalled, up to twelve ‘webinars’that is, meetings via the Internet of city representatives, to share problems, policies and solutions that some have applied and that may be useful to others.
Collaborative networks
These are, he explained, the collaborative networks that have been maintained during this period to analyze the experiences and problems that everyone has faced. And the idea is that “the inhabitants must live” in their Historic Center, in their city. There are problems of traffic, tourism, gentrification and mobility, and that is why “sustainable and sustainable management” is necessary, so that the city is “pleasant to live in and visitors can enjoy it”.
“Climate, economic and social crises make cities more vulnerable”
Bruno Marchand
President of the OVPM
The challenges of pedestrianization, how houses located in historic centers can continue to be attractive, how to take care of vegetation and bring more trees, the recovery of spaces and the fight against tourist apartmentsthat fill all the cities like a very strong irruption in recent years, are part of their challenges, because the common idea is that it is the same inhabitants of the city who can reintegrate these neighborhoods, and that this also leads to recovering the services that were leaving.
From there will come new commitments and knowledge that will remain in the Road map of Cordobawhich will mark the work of the following months. From now on, the cities that already exist will have to continue to join and participate.
