The fox in charge of the henhouse. This popular saying, which can be applied to a multitude of real situations in 21st century society, also serves to illustrate precisely what has been happening for decades in monumental cities with undeniable tourist appeal, such as Salamanca. That is to say: that the tourism sector is responsible for recovering dilapidated historic buildings (generally in the hands of the Church, which does not know what to do with them) to convert them, not into a tourist attraction, but in a final destination, in housing.
On paper, the idea may seem great. In practice, cities lose opportunities to generate new public attractions, thus opening the hand to the progressive destruction of heritage. What is happening in Salamanca – especially over the last decade – follows a pattern increasingly common throughout the country, the greatest representative of which is found in dozens of Spanish castles that have liquidated all their internal history to open the doors of a beautiful hotel. Perhaps because a defensive building from the Middle Ages can never be a comfortable resting place in the 21st century without sacrificing its insides, that is, without eliminating its past.
The reflection was born from an in-depth, in-depth and detailed study by the association Citizens for the Defense of Heritage on a specific case, which it has been following for two and a half decades. It is an old chapel from the 14th century located in the center of Salamanca which has developed the most varied uses (from the hospital to the cinema to the printing press) throughout its long existence and which today today, in clear deterioration, will become modern tourist accommodation with eight apartments. , with a capacity of 32 people maximum.
In theory, things look good: the building will abandon its sad and dilapidated appearance, and will finally have a use guaranteeing its survival. If we examine the fine print, as the Salamancain collective does, the side effects can weigh more: “The opportunity to provide the city with a greater heritage capable of being exhibited and appreciated by all will be lost, thus that the possibility of uniting, once again, the bangle with the lid.
Because the different uses of the Notre-Dame de la Miséricorde chapel and perhaps also the lack of interest in the building on the part of its owner, the bishopric of Salamanca, have gradually stripped it of its cachet. The building was founded in 1389 to serve as a hospital for a short time. It was also the seat of a brotherhood which ensured “assistance to those condemned to death with all the temporary help they needed” until it reached, visibly beaten, the 20th century.
The original coffered ceiling no longer existed, the artwork was moved to a nearby church, and in 1910 worship ceased to be held inside. In November 1914 its decline was complete, when the roof collapsed. Abandoned to its fate by the Church, the hermitage began a long journey through the last century fulfilling the most diverse functions. Firstly, as the headquarters of the cultural activities of the union organization Unión Ferroviaria y Obrera; later, as a school and cinema (the San José cinema became the most popular screening room for several generations of Salamancans) and, finally, as the headquarters of a printing press which developed inside almost half -century of activity.
Loss of assets
Intense and disparate activity over the course of a century has claimed some of its most characteristic elements. In 1916, the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia lost one of the clearest signs of identity: the recognizable bell tower that crowned the baroque facade was dismantled and moved to the new church built in another area of the city. Wounded, retaining only elements and styles of the 16th and 18th centuries, the chapel barely reaches the 21st century. But she didn’t do it alone. The Citizens for the Defense of Heritage movement, born as an association in 1999, made denunciation of the situation of the old hermitage one of its first demands.
The property “has never been the subject of the slightest conservation or consolidation action, not even to mitigate the damage caused by the urbanization of its surroundings,” say those responsible. Water – in the form of rain or through underground pipes, in the absence of the necessary protection and care – has become its main enemy, because it is the agent of deterioration of its fragile sandstone walls.
In fact, ten years ago, Citizens for the Defense of Heritage promoted the inclusion of the chapel on the Red List managed by the Hispania Nostra organization to give visibility to heritage elements in danger of disappearing. Along the way, the Salamanca group had sent (unsuccessfully) successive allegations to the Salamanca City Hall to introduce different measures into the urban plan to stop the deterioration of the property: removing the current uralite roof, placing a door consistent with the dignity of a 14th century building and above all restore the old belfry. However, the administration rejected the association’s repeated requests, while the bishopric of Salamanca did not intervene in the building and did not know very well (as the association points out) what to do with the disfigured chapel .
Until the light comes. That same year, the institution that owns it, without any idea of how to preserve the chapel or any intention of allocating financial resources to restore the property’s sense of ownership, presented a project to transfer the building to a real estate developer as part of this project. very modern mantra: “generate wealth”. As? Intended for the construction of tourist apartments.
Although it may seem surprising, the transformation promoted by the Madrid company Ingesurb, with a planned investment of more than 325,000 euros for the construction of eight tourist apartments, is not so surprising. The same company had already carried out other similar projects on Church land or properties for the same purpose. The Citizens for the Defense of Heritage do not give credit to the facilities offered to the Bishopric by the City Hall of Salamanca to make this proposal a reality, since the municipal institution “has not established limits to this type of establishment” .
Nearly thirty cases
Although, without a doubt, the most interesting in the public complaint of the Citizens for the Defense of Heritage is the reflection it focuses on the conversion of the old hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia into apartments, expandable to other cities with tourist projection, in the midst of the great housing crisis that today affects hundreds of thousands of Spaniards. This case “is an additional example of the decline of cities focused on tourism as a means of situating oneself in the world, without this activity necessarily generating wealth, new jobs, recovering buildings or places of public and collective enjoyment or allows new spaces for culture.” and the participation of the company,” says its secretary, Jesús Delgado.
The association assures that, in the 80s and 90s, the policy was the opposite: agreements with owners allowed cities like Salamanca to add more historical heritage and make it available to citizens. “For more than a decade, municipal policy (of Salamanca) has not considered incorporating more assets of heritage interest into its management, despite the logical need to periodically increase the tourist and cultural offer, to the enjoyment of locals and visitors, allowing new spaces to provide content and fill gaps,” he adds.
On the other hand, regarding the use itself, this association – which is celebrating a quarter of a century of activity this year – censors its tourist aspect in the current context where housing is becoming scarce, its price is inaccessible for part of society . Tourist locations contribute to further increasing the cost of accommodation in the market. “It is surprising that, despite the fact that the proposed use is clearly questioned in our society due to the perverse effects it has on the real estate market, the Salamanca City Council lends itself so easily to it,” says Jesús Delgado, in reference to the lighting requirements established during the process of transforming the ancient hermitage into tourist apartments. He does so, in the group’s opinion, because the reform proposed by the Bishopric “will put an end to the bad image that the state of this building brought to the city” and “because he does not want to take into account responsible for managing more space and equipping itself with more equipment.
The most significant aspect of the public complaint of Citizens for the Defense of Heritage is that the situation of the former 14th century hospital – that is to say the allocation of a listed building to tourist apartments – “ is neither new nor fortuitous. The association has counted thirty similar cases in Salamanca, in addition to new projects underway, such as the transformation for economic purposes of convents and spaces belonging to the Church and lacking a defined use.
However, this policy is not exclusive to Salamanca and the panorama is easily identifiable in other cities and municipalities attractive to the tourist sector. “Administrations tolerate the loss of historic buildings by accepting their conversion into accommodation for more tourists, who have less and less new ways to visit the city in question, especially when visitors do not need to do so within the walls medieval”, laments Jesús Delgado. . on behalf of the Salamanca collective. In short, a shift by which heritage will cease to be an object of visits and will become, directly, a hotel, an apartment, a restaurant or a cafeteria. But visiting, what’s the next step?
