The 50 years of the World Heritage Convention in Spain: implementation, effects, and challenges

Due to the diversity of characteristics and the high number of World Heritage sites (49) inscribed by Spain, this country and its ICOMOS National Committee have a long experience in the application of the World Heritage Convention throughout these 50 years. The World Heritage Working Group of the Spanish National Committee of ICOMOS has therefore carried out an analysis of these sites, their history and evolution, typology, and state of conservation with the final goal of assessing their current heritage situation and the contribution of the Convention to the conservation of the Spanish natural and cultural heritage. We also aim to reflect on how Spain has contributed to the World Heritage Convention during these five decades and about the most important challenges that our country needs to confront in order to continue complying with the spirit of the Convention and the principles of its Operational Guidelines.

To conduct this analysis, we first deal with the background of the ratification of the Convention in Spain, provide an overview of its application, and describe the evolution of the Spanish Tentative List. Second, we deepen on the Spanish nominations and the typologies of the Spanish properties inscribed on the World Heritage List. Thirdly, we focus on the preservation of the Spanish World Heritage sites basing on the State of Conservation Reports (SOCs) that affect them and the results of the first survey on these properties’ conservation, management and presentation carried out by the Heritage Observatory of ICOMOS Spain. This allows us to share some conclusions about the most positive effects of the Convention for the protection of Spanish cultural heritage and the most important challenges for its future development, many of which can be extended at least to the European context.