Historic Centre of Puebla

Urban development project including the demolition of a great number of colonial constructions

Puebla, Mexico (C 4l 6)

Puebla is a new colonial town established in 1531 on a regular street pattern, the rigidity of which was expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries with, on the one hand, an extension of commercial and industrial activities and, on the other, a growth in the population. It preserves a very wide range of monuments from the 16th to 19th centuries. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in December 1987 on the basis of criteria ii and iv.

In December 1993 the Secretariat informed the World Heritage Committee at its 17th Meeting in Cartagena (Colombia) that it had received several letters drawing its attention to an urban development plan prepared by the Municipality of Puebla which might adversely affect the protected zone (the Los Remedios, La Luz, La Cruz, and San Francisco quarters).

The Committee for the Defence of the Historic Centre of Puebla, which had been created by tenants and property owners threatened with expropriation, appealed to ICOMOS, which referred the subject to its Mexican National Committee for study and comment. A mission visited Puebla in May 1994. The Director General of UNESCO in the meantime sent an expert, Giorgio Lombardi, on a mission to evaluate the true impact of the project.

Despite the approaches made to various bodies, the somewhat fragmentary information obtained by ICOMOS has made it impossible to evaluate this urban renewal plan.

It would be desirable to know to what extent this project, even though it is not yet complete, affects the World Heritage Monument. Is it capable of being properly integrated with the ancient urban fabric? Should it become a new landmark for the whole townscape and redefine it in formal, rhetorical, and visual terms? Does the insertion of tourist and commercial architectural programmes, whose centres of gravity are open spaces, not clash with the historic urban fabric, where the accent is placed on the network of streets? Finally, will the likely high elevations of the new constructions not visually overwhelm the colonial architecture and destroy the outstanding views?

Recommendation

A rehabilitation plan for a part of the World Heritage site of Puebla was briefly discussed at the seventeenth session of the Committee. More detailed information was provided at the eighteenth session of the Bureau on the basis of a report from the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the report of a UNESCO expert who visited Puebla in June of this year. The situation can be summarized as follows:

A regional development programme called ANGELOPOLIS is in preparation for an area of the State of Puebla including 14 municipalities and 35% of the population of the State of Puebla. In the context of this regional development plan an urban rehabilitation project is planned for the Rio San Francisco area in Puebla which would include the development of a pedestrian area and the construction of hotels, a convention centre and commercial areas. The project would concern 27 of the 391 building blocks within the World Heritage site and the INAH announced that it would establish a special commission to evaluate the projects for the area.

Upon the request of the Governor of Puebla, a UNESCO expert undertook a mission in June.

The mission report provides an analysis of the urban structure of Puebla and concludes that the San Francisco area is an extremely important element in it: it is a kind of corridor, an open space, from the north to the south only three building blocks from the central square of the town. This area, originally the San Francisco River, which was covered in the sixties to create a boulevard and which is now one of the busiest through roads, divided and divides the city in two parts: the western part, originally occupied by the Spaniards, and the eastern part where the Indian population lived. Since the early nineteenth century, industry developed along the San Francisco river. Most of the industrial buildings are now empty.

The expert considers that the 'San Francisco corridor' can be typologically divided into three sectors: the central zone, where the Convent of San Francisco is located and where most of the empty building lots are to be found, and the northern and the southern zones, which are more residential in character and still reflect the original morphology.

The expert concludes that the general urban policy as proposed by the authorities is acceptable in that it intends to valorize the important north-south axis and to re-establish the connection between the western and the eastern part of town, but that the project should better respond to the morphology and characteristics of the area.

The authorities responded very favourably to the recommendations of the expert mission and requested further advice. Another three missions will be undertaken, therefore, to be financed under a World Heritage assistance, approved by the Chairperson of the World Heritage Committee on 14 September 1994.

All documentation on Puebla was also transmitted to ICOMOS for advice. ICOMOS will report to the Committee in a separate document.

The Committee may wish to commend the authorities of Mexico, the State of Puebla and the Municipality on their positive response to the UNESCO advice, and to invite them to report on a regular basis to the Secretariat on the further development of the projects for the San Francisco area.