El Conjunto Patrimonial del Castell de Castalla (Castalla, Alicante): propuesta para su reconocimiento y protección jurídica (original) (raw)
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6th International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development, 2018
The Iberian Peninsula has an important set of castles because of its historical vicissitudes, an important set of castles. They are a few fortifications of public property belonging to the city councils of those municipalities where they are placed. One of the most privileged Spanish administrative divisions, in this respect, is the Province of Alicante, in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, which has 46 fortifications of municipal property. Actually, they present different degrees of management with a bad, regular and good condition of preservation. Taking as a starting point the Castalla Castle Heritage Site, between whose cultural and natural assets is Castalla Castle, its management is announced on the part of the City Council. This is the reason to study different crucial aspects in order to understand their management within the councils of the Province of Alicante, such as the historical context and the Spanish and Valencian legal context.
Castalla Castle. Architecture and restoration in the 21st century in Alicante
REHAB 2015. 2nd International Conference on Preservation, Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Historical Buildings and Structures, 2015
Castalla Castle is one of the most emblematic fortifications in the Valencian Community. Built in the 11th century by the Muslims, the current fortification –composed of the Palace, the Lower Ward and the Large Tower– is the result of various changes and new construction projects undertaken during two great chronological and cultural phases: Andalusian and Christian. Its deplorable state of conservation drove the City Council to take the first steps for its social recovery in 1984. This was reflected in a previous report. This proposal was not carried out, but it was taken up years later. On the basis of the work done in 1984 and 1995, the castle was excavated between 1997 and 1999. Between 2003 and 2006, it was decided to restore the entire fortification. In this regard, the Castalla Castle is one of the few totally restored in the province of Alicante, following the contemporary scientific criteria
The current management of cultural heritage requires a joint administration of their tangible and intangible assets, as well as the natural heritage in their environment. However, it is an approach that is not always carried out. In the case of those castles located in the south of the Valencian Community (Spain), this management is in themselves. From the work developed in Castalla since 2005, and the doctoral thesis carried out between 2013 and 2016, it has been possible to meet their real – cultural and natural – heritage diversity: in many cases and to date it was practically invisible. Thus, with reference to Castalla Castle and Sax Castle, the concept of heritage site will be defined, cultural and natural assets that make them up will be listed, their similarities and differences will be showed and it will be reflected on the need to understand them as heritage sites that are cultural and natural landscapes, larger or smaller, to be integrally managed as the only way to achieve a proper administration.
TOPIARIUS • Landscape studies • 6 11 , 2018
Castalla Castle (Alicante, Spain), built between the 11 th and 16 th centuries, is one of the most outstanding fortifications in the province of Alicante, as part of al-Andalus, first, and the Kingdom of Valencia, after. The present work aims to deepen the knowledge of its landscape on a medium scale for a large part of the Middle Ages. In this way, analysing some material (archaeological) and cultural (written) sources, it has been possible to better draw the Castalla Castle landscape in the Foia de Castalla district, a geographic territory located in the north of the province of Alicante, between the 11 th and 15 th centuries and during two different chronocultural periods: Andalusian (11 th century-1244) and Christian (1244-1499).
PROTECTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE, 2024
The province of Alicante is an administrative unit belonging to the Valencian Community, one of the 17 autonomous communities that make up Spain, and it is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Its historical vicissitudes have motivated the existence of many castles. All of them mark the province from north to south and from east to west. After losing their military and/or residential functions, many castles were abandoned and became ruins of reference in their landscape. Their recovery began without a defined use in the second half of the 20th century. However, the tourist development of the province of Alicante, under the Costa Blanca brand, has turned these castles into a first-rate cultural and tourist resource. In this way, many actions have been carried out on their cultural and tourist use to learn about the history of the places where they are. For this reason, the present work is committed to reflect on the new uses of these castles during the first quarter of the 21st century and the remains for their preservation.
This paper aims to present the Knight’s Castle in the island of Castellorizo by analysing its history and construction, thus to compare its current situation with historical references. On 14th century the Knights of St. John reached Castellorizo on their way to Rhodes. The strategic and commercial reasons why the Knights settled on an island far away (110 km) from their headquarters in Rhodes are going to be analysed thoroughly in this paper. What remains today from the medieval fortifications at the island, includes a tall tower (17.5x22 m.), surrounded by a well-built outer wall at the north. These fortifications are enhanced by three smaller circular towers: 2 of them placed on the north while the other one is situated on the east of the big central tower. The central tower is reinforced by a scarpa on the south; element to be investigated for its existence and chronological construction. The archaeologist Albert Gabriel having visited the island on 1916 proposed some important representations of the St. Nicolas castle. Specifically, on his representation of the castle, he suggests that the port’s fortifications were significantly extended including other constructions (pavillon, passerelle, poterne, courtines) do not currently exist. A. Gabriel’s representation of the castle is going to be compared with its current condition through sketches, old photographs and 3d models examining and analysing the evolution of the island’s fortifications.
IN A VILLAGE OF CASTILLA… DEALING WITH HERITAGE CONSERVATION IN A DEPOPULATION CONTEXT
The existence of small Historic Urban Areas with a recognized heritage value but a very limited capacity of intervention, it is quite frequent in Europe. The lack of demographic and economic dynamism -both the town itself and the territory where it is placed-, requires renewing the intervention criteria. About building conservation, monumental and not, it is needed an integrative vision of the heritage, the territory and the urban fact. It is not a new approach, but nowadays it acquires a special significance, because of the current economic context, the specific circumstances of these cases and international trends in the urban heritage field as the concept of Historic Urban Landscape. Communication reviews this situation in the region of Castilla y León (Spain), where an important amount of their historical towns reflects these features even unable to develop compulsory planning instruments. Pointing the need to generate new intervention strategies, they should consider the town and the territorial heritage, developing cooperative strategies and the adaptation of traditional mechanisms of protection to the characteristics and needs of this kind of realities
Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture XV, 2017
The province of Alicante has an important number of castles. Their existence is the result of many historical dynamics, as part of al-Andalus, first, and of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, later. In 2016, during the 3rd International Conference on Defence Sites: Heritage and Future, it was explained how municipalities manage their castles in the province of Alicante – a subject developed in the doctoral thesis undertaken at the University of Alicante between 2013 and 2016. This management will be analysed in depth, taking advantage of the opportunity that the 15th International Conference on Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture offers. Departing from a sample of 47 fortifications, their role as a tourist cultural product will be studied in two different ways: determining what actions are carried in these castles – like the implementation of guided and/or self-guided visits with a stable schedule, the accomplishment of open days, as well as dramatized visits, their musealisation, etc. – and which global initiatives, like the Vinalopó Castles Route – carried out by the University of Alicante – or the Costa Blanca 100 Castles Route – a tourist brand of the province of Alicante – are being undertaken by the Provincial Council of Alicante. Finally, in view of the historical and heritage interest awakened by these fortifications, some management proposals focused on their use as heritage resources, with a great potential, capable of being transformed into tourist cultural products of quality will be explained.