The Tarragona City Hall, through the area of Historic Heritage, has prepared a programme of activities to celebrate the XVI anniversary of Tarraco being declared a World Heritage Site. After this declaration, made on the 30th of November 2000, came the declaration of Intangible Cultural Heritage for the human towers and for the Mediterranean diet. Moreover, Tarragona is also included in the World Heritage for its eastern coast cave paintings. Therefore, Tarragona is a truly privileged city in acknowledgments towards its extremely rich historic heritage in the broadest sense of the term.
It is therefore right that we celebrate it and that we do so with a programme that, from the 30th of November to the 4th of December, will have diffusion, participation, accessibility and reflection upon the value of heritage and its cultural, recreational and social nature as its main themes.
We begin with the presentation of the app, Tarragona Accessible, an accessible guide created by the Group of Spanish World Heritage Cities, which is an advance on the way to having heritage and tourism for everyone. On the same day, the city will award the Tarraco Prize in recognition of the tasks carried out regarding the conservation, preservation and diffusion of Tarragona’s world heritage, a new award that comes about with the intention of placing value on the efforts made by the people and entities who work for our heritage. In the participation section, we would highlight the presentation of the conclusions reached from the Civic Tarraco participative project and the start of a new participative process regarding the uses of historic heritage, which will begin with a debating session on the 2nd and in which we can participate either in person during the session or through the Internet with the Messagenes platform.
The celebration continues on the 3rd and 4th with the events of a more diffusive and recreational nature, with open day sessions throughout Tarraco’s archaeological sites, historical re-enactments beside the monuments themselves, guided visits and an open day session at the new area that can now be visited inside the Cathedral: the Exedra Romana room.
We would encourage you to have a look at the events programme and to enjoy these days of celebration, but to also have a spirit of reflection about the responsibilities and the importance of conserving and diffusing the deep cultural and social meanings entailed in our heritage. In short, a programme that is open to everyone, for both our citizens and for visitors who, we are sure, will make an even greater contribution to the appreciation of our cultural heritage, which is a true symbol of identity for the entire region. We therefore invite you to participate and to enjoy our, your heritage.
