Survey on Legislation regarding Cultural Properties in Spain
The Japan Center for International Cooperation in Conservation has been collecting and translating foreign laws and regulations on the protection of cultural properties in various countries since FY 2007, and has so far published 28 volumes. The project aims to contribute to Japan`s international cooperation and to provide a reference for reevaluating Japanese protection systems in the field of cultural properties. In this regard, we conducted a field survey in Spain, the next target country, from March 19 to 28, 2024.
Spain used to have a nationally centralized protection system, but since the 1980s, authority has been diverted to the states (comunidad autónoma). Due to its vast territory and cultural diversity, there are differences in protection from state to state. In recent years, many states have enacted legislation regarding cultural landscapes, industrial heritage, and intangible heritage. The Spanish-designated cultural properties, denominated “Bien de Interés Cultural,” are just a tip of the iceberg of “Bien de Patrimonio Historico,” identified by state Institutes for Historic Heritage. Notable is that the last category, mostly not designated, is in some way protected by local urban planning.
Through this survey, we were able to get a glimpse of the protection of cultural properties in Spain, hardly introduced to Japan until now. Actually, the state protection of cultural properties is obliged to comply with Spanish national and state laws, of which we plan to conduct research in FY 2024 and FY 2025, respectively. Since some state protection systems are well-organized, we can reconsider using such laws as reference for reevaluation of the protections of cultural properties in Japan.