Old City of Salamanca

Urban development pressure

As requested by Decision 29 COM 7B.86, the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS reviewed the state of conservation of the property based on the following material submitted by the State Party: the Periodic Report Section II on the property submitted on 31 October 2005 (see working Document WHC-06/30.COM/11A); a letter dated 12 January 2006 of the City of Salamanca concerning the designation status of the “Old Provincial Hospital”; a report by the city authorities of Salamanca; as well as a copy of the management plan for the property submitted with letter dated 8 March 2006.

In its Periodic Report, the State Party stated that the management of the property relies on the involvement of the national, regional, and local public authorities. It mentioned details of the heritage legislation and planning documents currently in force, both national and regional, and submitted respective documentation. The General Plan for Urban Zoning of the Municipality of Salamanca (Plan General de Ordenación urbana del municipio de Salamanca), revised and approved in 2004, was referred to as the main planning document.

The Centre noted that the boundary included in the submitted planning document of the “Plan General de Ordenación urbana del municipio de Salamanca. Revisión-Adaptación 2004. Aprobación Inicial” corresponded to the one in the nomination document, but that the seven serial elements that were clearly incorporated in the property in the last version of the nomination are omitted in the Plan.

The State Party declared that at present all actions carried out are supervised by the Territorial and Municipal Heritage Commissions. Furthermore, it is planned to appoint a World Heritage site manager and to form a management team, to improve co-ordination on the actions carried out by the different administrations of the City of Salamanca.

Having reviewed all available information, ICOMOS noted that many of the concerns expressed in earlier Committee decisions remain unclear or unanswered. The ICOMOS mission of 2002 very clearly described why the “auditorium” proposed for the Huerto de las Adoratrices site constituted an inappropriate intrusion on the chosen site, and would have a negative impact on the values recognized by inscription. The mission report noted that in 2000 revisions were made to the “Special Plan for the Protection and Interior Reform of the University Area and Historic-Artistic Ensemble” specifically to facilitate building the new structure, forbidden by the existing Plan.

While a State Party letter of 25 February 2005 noted a “decision to defer the building of the Auditorium pending the approval of the new General Plan”, the 2006 information by the State Party does not provide new information on the status of this project, nor has the State Party responded to the concerns expressed by ICOMOS and the World Heritage Committee concerning the nature of the proposed development.

The State Party Periodic Report stated that the Plan General de Ordenacion Urbana del Municipio de Salamanca is the management plan requested by the Committee. ICOMOS considered that the Plan General is a conventional urban development master plan, and does not correspond to the Committee’s request that the State Party undertake an integrated management plan involving all stakeholders.

The State Party Periodic Report suggested that the initial property boundaries established in 1988 with inscription have not been modified. The Report however does not address the ICOMOS statement that the Plan General Revisión-Adaptación “recognized that the boundaries of the World Heritage property have already been reduced and almost fragmented when compared with the consolidated historic fabric, since they exclude the areas that are undergoing immense change”.  

The exchanges of information between Committee, Advisory Bodies and the State Party over the last four years illustrate that the expectations of the World Heritage Committee seem to be not well understood by the responsible authorities. The World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS would therefore consider it helpful to organise a training seminar for all involved in management of this World Heritage property (and similar cases in Spain) in order to ensure that the concepts of the Operational Guidelines are fully understood by those with management responsibility for the property.