NET-HERITAGE

Cultural Heritage Context

Spain has a rich and varied cultural heritage. A wide range of national, regional and local institutions, both public and private, support cultural heritage conservation and research.

Spain is the second country, after Italy, with more monuments included in World Heritage List by UNESCO.

At a national level, in 2007, Spain had 15.598 immovable properties and 5.656 movable properties protected as Cultural Heritage Property (BIC) by the Ministry of Culture.

Cultural Heritage Governance and Policy

Cultural heritage governance is a complex matter in Spain. The responsibility for cultural heritage in Spain resides with the corresponding autonomic regional governments, which means that is fragmented into the different regions. Cultural Heritage protection is governed by Law16/1985 on Spanish Cultural Heritage, although Autonomous Regions have developed their own legislation.

The Ministry of Culture is responsible for National Cultural Heritage, including a few National Museums, and coordinates international activities. It has two subdirectorates devoted to Cultural Heritage conservation: General Subdirectorate for Historic Heritage Protection and General Subdirectorate of the Institute for Cultural Heritage of Spain. The first one is responsible for the application of Regulation on protection of Historic Heritage, while the Institute for Cultural Heritage of Spain elaborates and executes conservation strategies among other functions.

In addition to the National Heritage Institute, some regions also have Heritage Institutes, a number of which are autonomous entities with respect to their regional Department (Ministry) of Culture, thus complicating the structure further.

Governance and policy can be difficult, with regions not always agreeing on a common basis.

Cultural Heritage Funding

Conservation, management and research on cultural heritage depends on many national and regional entities. Sponsorship and funds can derive from different National Ministries, and the Regional Governments, the national and regional Heritage Institutes, local governments (cities) and private entities (foundations, banks, Catholic Church, etc.). An estimation of the funds devoted to cultural heritage is a difficult task.

Data from 2001 as published in 2004 , estimated the total budget spent by the public sector in Spain in the preservation of Cultural Heritage, including National Government, Autonomous Communities and Regional Bodies as 1526.01 M€ (millions of Euros). In addition to the budget of the public sector, there is a significant contribution to the works of restoration and conservation of Cultural Heritage by the private sector. The total amount of money estimated (based on polls) was 221.17 M€, spent in the main by the Catholic Church (54.1%) and private Foundations (39.4%).

This data does not include the budget dedicated to research on Cultural Heritage which, as indicated in the next section, is very difficult to estimate due to the dispersed nature of funding sources and the lack of a specific program of research on Cultural Heritage.

Between 2004 and 2008 projects related to the conservation of cultural heritage funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation within the National Plan of R&D  have received approximately 1,2 M €/year.

Cultural Heritage Research

Many cultural heritage initiatives rely on the scientists that present research projects at national calls from the Ministry of Science. Some others are funded by Autonomic Regional Governments Programmes. While in the past Spain prioritised funding of cultural heritage research programmes through the Ministry of Science (formerly Ministry of Education and Science), at present Spain lacks a National programme for cultural heritage research and therefore, European initiatives such as Net-Heritage or a JPI in Cultural Heritage will help to enhance and consolidate this research area.

Cultural Heritage Education and Outreach

Traditionally in Spain there have been two different and separate paths for official training in conservation: a 3 years diploma in conservation in an Official School of Restoration (a non-university degree approximately equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree) or a five years university licenciatura (approximately equivalent to a Master’s degree) in Fine Arts, with the Speciality of Conservation-Restoration.

Most recently some universities have introduced some post-graduate programmes in conservation, leading either to a master degree or to a doctoral degree in conservation.

However, this scenario is now changing with the participation of Spain in the Bologna Process to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and adapt the current training scheme to the European model. Universities across Spain are now starting to offer graduate and post-graduate studies, adapted to the EHEA, on conservation of Cultural Heritage.

Concerning research in cultural heritage conservation, as no specific courses or programmes are devoted to cultural heritage research, it relies on personal initiatives of different scientists and institutions to include cultural research into research centres of Archaeology, Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Geology, Biology, Natural Resources, etc. mainly in the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and in different departments of Spanish Universities, but also in Museums, Libraries and Cultural Heritage Institutes.

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