Tobed Patrimonio Mundial – Proyecto del Ayuntamiento de Tobed para la gestión de su Patrimonio Mudéjar declarado Patrimonio Mundial por la UNESCO en el año 2001

PRE-BOOKING THROUGH:

Tobed
World Heritage

Tobed Mudejar architecture celebrates on december the 20th anniversary of its declaration as a World Heritage Site Unesco.

This is part of a double international anniversary, 35 years of recognition of the Mudejar Architecture of Teruel, in 1986, and 20 years of the extension of the international brand to all aragonese territory that incorporated six buildings of the province of Zaragoza, in 2001.

The number of properties recognized as highlights of world heritage was key to understanding the true dimension and meaning of Mudejar art in Aragon.

While the incorporation of La Seo del Salvador, the church and tower of the parish of San Pablo and the palace Aljafería in Zaragoza put the focus on the origin and diffuser mode of islamic tradition, as well as on the entrenchment of style; distinguishing the collegiate of Santa Maríain Calatayud, the church of Santa Tecla in Cervera de la Cañada and the church of the Virgen de Tobed in Tobed expanded the territorial focus of the international declaration, projecting it on rural places to which it endowed with a new dimension.

MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORT World Heritage

UNESCO Mudejar World Heritage

Google Arts and Culture

Tobed is located in the heart of the Grío river, between the mountain range of Vicor and Algairén, and has become the model of local management and development by building a project in which the inhabitants develop their lives and economic activities by bringing history, art, education, landscape, traditions and people to generate their own identity and wealth.

An example is the creation of the Espacio Mudéjar Mahoma Calahorrí, a museum of the history of the Mudejar of Aragon in the Palacio del Prior, which has created an active space and international relations on the management of world heritage from Tobed. But, without forgetting, that a heritage development project cannot exist without the maintaining inhabitants and the effort made for decades from local administration and active economic activities such as agriculture, beekeeping, blacksmithing, artisan ceramics, commerce, local gastronomy, hospitality to the traveler and care for the elderly in a professionalized way.

The church of the Virgen de Tobed, paradigm of Mudejar fortress church, was started to build, in 1356 under the ownership of the military order of Santo Sepulcro, with the sponsorship of Pedro IV of Aragon, the kings of Castile, the archbishop of Zaragoza, Lope Fernández de Luna and the pope Benedicto XIII, Papa Luna; counting on the best masters of the moment Mahoma Calahorri and Mahoma Rami.

The potency of its exterior, of compact volumetry, shows us one of the best examples of religious and defensive function.

If the exterior shows us a spectacular enveloping facade and a compact defensive volume, in which stand out the round road in height and the buttress towers open with saeteras, the interior surprises us by the delicacy and elegance of a Mudejar space in its purest state characterized by the diaphanous, the verticality, the agramiled and painted decoration of its walls , as well as a magnificent carved and polychrome wood pottery that has come to this day, almost whole, since the 14th century.

The influence of the military order of Santo Sepulcro in Tobed is visible throughout its urban area which, while striking for its simplicity and appearance as a “white towns”, preserves constructions of important works of the Renaissance such as the Lonja, the parish church of San Pedro and the Palacio del Prior from the Baroque period.

The town also retains other elements of interest such as the tower of the islamic castle and the hermitage of San Valentín on the ridge of the Sierra de Algairén and as ‘watchman’ of the Sierra de Vicor, both of them, natural spaces in which the town is integrated magnificently.

Heritage itineraries

We present three itineraries.

MONUMENTAL VISIT

The tour begins at the Mudéjar Mahoma Calahorri Museum and includes:

Visit to the museum
Palacio del Prioir o de los Canónigos.
Lonja
Mudéjar church of the Virgen de Tobed Mudéjar (included in the tour the defensive zone and the Parish Museum).

VISIT CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

URBAN ITINERARY AND HOUSES

International Congress

The INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ‘FROM IDENTITY TO RE IDENTITY’ is a project of scientific dissemination framed in a strategy that uses the management of the Unesco World Heritage brand as a sustainability tool with which to work from a local development perspective and from the use of its historical-artistic resources for the improvement of the quality of life in the locality.

If in the first two editions, 2016 and 2018, we addressed topics that outlined, the first, the management of identity strategies through the claim of the historical heritage space as a natural space and context of displaced movable goods and, the second, the need for a definition of current and future uses of world heritage at the local level as a local management and development strategy.

In this third edition the activity is intended to achieve stability in a biannual format as a international meeting addressing reflections that definitively unsern the need for scientific research and management action from its own aspects and through local examples that, in essence, are universal problems of heritage management and allow us to generate international work forums to advance the path of work well done.

The special configuration of our activity, halfway between congress, scientific meeting and study visit has been defined to the extent of the place where it takes place. This very own format allows us to work outside of congress a whole battery of satellite actions that focus on the management of uses of the Church of the Virgin Mudejar World Heritage Site and to which the inhabitants of the town (permanent and non-permanent) have gradually joined by building a strategy of intergenerational social participation, unique and typical of Tobed.

SCIENTIFIC DIRECTION

The World Heritage Tobed project owes everything to Professor Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis. As scientific director of the management project in all its phases and the congresses of 2016 and 2018 we thank you for your momentum, its closeness and the great work that we develop every day for almost 14 years to reach today.

Honorary director: Gonzalo M. Borrás Gualis

Scientific director of Mudéjar World Heritage and local development: Victoria E. Trasobares Ruiz

Scientific drector of Cultural Heritage and Management: José Castillo Ruiz