Third MOMAr meeting: exchange of international good practices

    The pedagogical nature and the use of new technologies in the field of heritage management were the focus of the third interregional meeting of the European project MOMAr (IEEE3 From theory to practice.Experimental Models of Management Tested) in which we have participated this week as an attending “stakeholder”.

    This event has allowed us to learn and be inspired by the initiatives that are being carried out in the field of Management of Singular Rural Heritage in all the countries participating in the project. This meeting has also allowed the use of cultural and natural spaces for the direct benefit and enjoyment of the population.

    Thus, the Daroca Town Hall announced the International Early Music Festival, which, with almost half a century of history, has become a world reference. Both training courses and concerts are attended every year by hundreds of professionals and lovers of early music from all over the world. It is a meeting that brings together the immense local architectural and historical heritage with international art and culture. The festival’s director, Javier Artigas, took the opportunity to confirm that this year’s edition will take place from 3 to 10 August. The broadcast of this experience was made from the church of San Miguel.

    Second MOMAr meeting: Territorio Mudéjar as a hub for rural innovation

    Territorio Mudéjar has participated this Thursday in the second meeting of the European project MOMAr, a pioneering meeting with entities of the province linked to cultural heritage.

    The event, with the aim of being a meeting point and a space to create new synergies within the sector, was held in an on-line format open to the public, with the participation of more than 50 professionals linked to heritage management and a streaming audience of more than 200 interested people.

    In the session, we explained how we work to be a hub of rural innovation and follow strategies of:

    • Research: with stays and professional internships in rural areas.
    • Communication, dissemination and knowledge: with the inhabitants as protagonists, working to attract national and international entities to the territory, taking advantage of the World Heritage brand; and working carefully with the media.
    • Investment and future projects: Working with specialised teams in calls for funding and building virtual workspaces to strengthen collaboration strategies.

    In addition, we have explained our role based on:

    • Use the heritage space from a disruptive point of view and directly linked to the local development of the communities.
    • The strengthening of historical-artistic heritage management thinking as a strategy, which affects multiple actions, and cultural management as a tool.
    • Attraction of professionals to the rural environment on a permanent basis, facilitating its implementation.
    • The evidence that the only way to have more significant results is through the strengthening of networking and the acquisition of roles within the network.
    • The need to exchange good practices without losing sight of the fact that it is not enough to replicate but to think about how it works in your territory and the assets on which your management is based.

    And we talked about our commitment to professionalization understood as quality, projects and results.

    2019 Residencies: Mudejar Heritage and Learning, the pedagogical material: knowing the heritage to value it and devise rural development models

    A multidisciplinary team of seven researchers has developed the research stay Landscape, cultural heritage and depopulation, which consists of the development of school materials that allow secondary school students to work in the classroom on the relationship between depopulation and cultural heritage in the villages of Territorio Mudéjar. The aim is for students to acquire skills that enable them to understand and value this heritage and to be able to formulate models and proposals for rural development that will enable them to tackle depopulation.

    The materials are available in open access so that they can be used by other educational centres, thus promoting knowledge of Mudejar heritage outside the towns that form part of the Mudejar Territory. They can be accessed at: https://paisaje-patrimonio-cultural-y-despoblacin-cmzgz.hub.arcgis.com/

    These materials introduce the use of ICT in the classroom, with tools similar to those already in widespread use in the professional world, and provide students with a tool for geographical analysis to work on the curricular content of the subject of Geography. Moreover, they are an educational resource that favours methodological and didactic renewal and the teacher can adapt them to the characteristics of his or her group or to specific students. All this with an online accompaniment, support and training in the use and development of this application during the course.

    The materials produced are presented on a website organised into sections. On the one hand, there are multimedia applications on a specific thematic content that have been developed with Story Map Cascade, a template that allows combining narrative text, maps, images and multimedia content. In each application there are interactive maps to work with different layers of information and with activities and instructions for students. In addition, there are field project viewers for planning, capturing, analysing and presenting different field projects on intangible heritage, natural heritage, cultural heritage and landscape types. Finally, short explanatory videos on interactive maps and their tools have been added.

    This project for Secondary completes Territorio Mudéjar’s initiative for Primary Education called “Rural school as the beginning of the circle” with which we want to introduce the way of working with heritage into the curricula of rural schools. The aim is for pupils to learn about and value the heritage that surrounds them and thus reinforce their roots and identity in their territory.

    LINE OF RESEARCH (2) Mudejar Territory and cultural landscape

    THE AUTHORS:

    • Carlos Guallart Moreno, coordinator of the project, graduate in Geography and History, master’s degree in Territorial and Environmental Organisation, Santa María del Pilar school (Zaragoza).
    • Noelia Cuartero Latorre, degree in Geography and Territorial Planning from the University of Zaragoza.
    • María Felisa Ferraz Gracia, PhD in Information and Documentation, Colegio Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Zaragoza).
    • María Laguna Marín-Yaseli, PhD in Geography, Colegio El Salvador (Zaragoza).
    • Alfredo Ollero Ojeda, PhD in Geography, Zaragoza University
    • Beatriz Rodrigo Garza, BA in Art History and MA in Cultural Heritage Management, teacher at IES La Azucarera (Zaragoza).
    • Javier Velilla Gil, graduate in Geography and History and high school teacher at IES El Portillo (Zaragoza).

    More info:
    www.estancias2019mudejaryaprendizaje.territoriomudejar.es

    Stays 2019: Mudejar World Heritage 3D: digital graphic documentation and scholarly dissemination to revalue Mudejar architecture

    The Mudejar World Heritage 3D project is a multidisciplinary initiative that proposes two complementary actions aimed at the revaluation of Mudejar heritage. On the one hand, a digital inventory has been carried out of several buildings and their virtual reconstruction using a combination of 3D scanning, photogrammetry and flight recording techniques – the Collegiate Church of Santa María in Calatayud, the church of Santa Tecla in Cervera de la Cañada, the church of the Virgin of Tobed, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the church of the Virgin of Tobed, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the church of La Virgen de Tobed, declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which have completed a previous work carried out by the research group on the church of San Félix de Torralba and to which a previous phase of work on the church of Santas Justa y Rufina de Maluenda has been added. On the other hand, the materials have been designed to bring data collection and analysis techniques and technologies closer to the school environment in the villages of Territorio Mudéjar. The first action, of a scientific nature, has allowed the virtual reconstruction of these buildings, having a high impact on the scientific community. The second, of a participatory nature, has enabled the generation of value through the creation of a brand image, Territorio Mudéjar, with a high impact on the population of these towns.

    The virtual survey of the 3D building consists of capturing the real geometry of the constructed building, with current point cloud technology, which allows buildings to be replicated with sufficient precision to guarantee its knowledge, at least virtually, in the event of any eventuality. Having a three-dimensional survey makes it possible to preserve a copy of the current state of the building with absolute precision that allows it to be replicated; it helps in its maintenance because, for example, through geometric knowledge it is possible to simulate structures, damp, etc. Furthermore, it is useful for the knowledge of the building and for its dissemination, as the three-dimensional model can be inventoried and placed in three-dimensional databases, allowing the building to be visible from anywhere in the world for its study. Even scale replicas can be made with a 3D printer.

    As a second action, this project proposes initiatives to raise awareness among the inhabitants of the villages of Territorio Mudéjar that they possess emblematic assets of universal value. The most accurate way to create opinion and brand image – in this case the Territorio Mudéjar brand – is through schools, as the younger population is more apt to learn and more sensitive to the digital world. Therefore, in order to revalue Mudejar art, educational exhibitions and workshops are proposed in schools with the participation of teachers, AMPAs and researchers and through the project-based learning methodology.

    LINE OF RESEARCH. (1) New perspectives on Mudéjar art.

    THE AUTHORS:

    • Luis Agustín Hernández, architect, PhD in Mechanical Engineering and lecturer at the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Zaragoza.
    • Miguel Sancho Mir, architect, PhD in Architectural Graphic Expression and lecturer at the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Zaragoza.
    • Beatriz Martin Domínguez, architect and lecturer at the Polytechnic University School of La Almunia, University of Zaragoza.

    Stays 2019: Mudejar plaster, its current use: searching the memory of craftsmen for the keys to traditional manufacture

    The research stay El plaster mudéjar, su uso actual has been the continuation of Pedro Bel’s doctoral thesis in which he has been able to confirm that the manufacturing technique of Mudéjar plaster did not change until the middle of the 20th century. This research delves into the traditional plaster manufacturing process to gain an in-depth knowledge of it and to detect the catalysts and motivations that favoured the changes to the current plaster production system, which increases the quantity and decreases the quality. This project has located the old plaster craftsmen and has documented the technique and its current variables. To this end, quarries and old plaster kilns have also been visited, documenting their state and making a 3D photogrammetric survey of those of special interest; the buildings in the territory with Mudejar plaster in characteristic elements have been identified with files. The ultimate objective of the conclusions is to revitalise the work spaces linked to the construction trades by reactivating them through a local company dedicated to the manufacture of traditional or Mudejar plaster.

    The research has been carried out in the towns of Aniñón, Borja, Calatayud, Daroca, Fuentes de Ebro, La Almunia de Doña Godina, Longares, Maluenda, Quinto de Ebro, Ricla, San Mateo de Gállego, Tauste, Terrer, Tobed, Villamayor, Villafeliche and Villar de los Navarros.

    The study shows that until 1950, gypsum production processes were traditional and that after this date there was a continuous technological development of the quarries. Those which were not updated quickly became obsolete and went bankrupt, so that it is common to find undismantled baked gypsum kilns or warehouses with gypsum stored in the old Aragonese quarries. The semi-industrialisation that took place in the 1950s altered the traditional gypsum and the most influential variation was the replacement of manual crushing by mechanical crushing.

    In terms of external factors, the high demography, which was linked to a favourable social and economic environment, led to a high demand for materials and therefore accelerated pre-industrialisation.

    LINE OF RESEARCH. (1) New perspectives on Mudejar art.

    THE AUTHOR. Pedro Bel Anzué is an architect and holds a PhD in Architectural Heritage Restoration from the University of Granada.

    Rural schools and heritage, a forward-looking partnership

    Territorio Mudéjar is participating in the first workshops on rural schools, organized by the Centro de Profesorado (Center for Teachers) in Calatayud.

    Rural schools in Aragon have always been a laboratory for rural innovation. Some of the most avant-garde educational initiatives have arisen there, later expanding to other schools in Aragon and even being duplicated across the country. One of the reasons for the success of these rural school projects is that they use the land as a reference for learning, making the environment a necessary element of the curriculum in order to educate with a sense of roots. At Territorio Mudéjar we share and promote these same distinguishing features, so we could not miss the “Escuela rural en clave de futuro” (Rural schools in terms of the future) workshops organized by the Center for Teachers in Calatayud.

    We were there today, not only to accompany the teachers and schools from our Territorio Mudéjar (schools in the districts of Aranda, Campo de Daroca and Comunidad de Calatayud), but we also had the opportunity to discuss with some of them how we believe that heritage and education form a perfect partnership for innovation.

    At Territorio Mudéjar we are working on several projects related to education: “Escuela rural como inicio del círculo” (Rural schools as the start of a circle) and research and development on educational materials. On the one hand, we aim to introduce ways of working with heritage into rural school curricula and, on the other, we intend to provide materials and resources to schools to help students learn to appreciate the natural and cultural heritage in their towns and to enable them to generate proposals for economic and demographic growth in order to counteract depopulation trends.

    More info: http://profesoradocalatayud.catedu.es/escuela-rural-en-clave-de-futuro/