Bulwarked Frontier Fortifications

Even though many of the citadels in the list were built in the spanish empire, Spain itself has no citadels in the world heritage list. I guess this fact doesn't sit right in the ministry of foreign affairs ,which is how we got yet another fortification proposal. The tentative site centres around a set of fortifications in the french and portuguese border. The best ones are the ones in figueras, jaca, pamplona and ciudad Rodrigo. Now I'll cut to the chase. I don't think the fortifications in Pamplona, the only ones I have visited, have OUV. Afaik they weren't particularly innovative at the time and significant portions have been torn down. They still make for a pleasant park and if you're in pamplona you should visit. However I don't feel like they add anything explicitay new to the list. Imo the strongest candidates are ciudad Rodrigo, which is hilarously included under "Romanesque Cultural Enclave in the North of Castile-Leon and the South of Cantabria" despite not being in the north of castille nor the south of cantabria, and San fernando in Figueras, which was built after the treaty of the pyrinees when Spain lost the valuable Fort bellegarde. These two sites might just be enough to wrap a proposal around so I will abstain from giving a thumbs down to the proposal, yet.

I actually think Ciudad rodrigo might eventually make it into the list. Though most likely not in a serial proposal but rather on its own, afterall …

I visited Gerona as a day trip from Barcelona in February 2022. This is a city with a lot of history: it was one of the most important jewish cities around 1200, important enough that a WH nomination from that perspective wouldn't surprise me, though I didn't find much that I could clearly link to this except the jewish museum. But it was a Monday and I missed that. Gerona has certainly the most impressive old town I have seen on this two week trip in Catalonia. It is not huge, basically arranged around the cathedral hill but it offers what you would wish for: narrow steep lanes, arcades with arches, several massiv churches and it is quite lively with shops and cafes mainly in the lower part. In comparison the so called Barrio Gotic of Barcelona is boringly flat and at least half of the buildings are from the 19th century or later. Gerona offers also several very interesting museums of history, archeology (in a romanesque convent), jewish history, art, a cathedral treasury, an nice Arab bath and a Caixa forum. I missed most of them since I used the only midday in town to travel to Empuries. But I think it is certainly worth another day trip. The cathedral is impressive: huge stairs lead to its renaissance facade and the gothic nave is one to the widest in the world (supposedly second only to St. Peters in Rome), I found it very dark nonetheless and as intimidating as …

In July 2020 I visited two locations, close to the border with Portugal, out of the three that make up this peculiar tentative WHS, namely Fort de la Conception in Aldea del Obispo and Ciudad Rodrigo.

The title of this WHS would suggest an emphasis on the Romanesque elements which is precisely what you'll get when visiting Ciudad Rodrigo, which is also one of the Pueblos Mas Bonitos de España. From research over the internet, this is San Felices de los Gallegos' main tourist offer too (the third location of this tWHS).

However, the Fort de la Conception in Aldea del Obispo, is definitely the weakest link of this nomination as it would make more sense to have it included on the transnational tWHS of the Bulwarked Frontier Fortifications (indeed, it is included together with San Felices de los Gallegos and others on that nomination too!). Fort de la Conception is a star fortress built in the Vaubanesque style which lies opposite the Portuguese castle fortress of Almeida (more on this in a separate review). Unlike the fortifications in Almeida, the derelict ones in Aldea del Obispo were sold privately and renovated into a luxury hotel which opened in 2012. It reminded me of part of the fortifications in Terceira in the Azores which have been converted into a pousada of Angra do Heroismo.

That said, should Aldea del Obispo be excluded from this tWHS nomination, ideally with an updated and more concise name such as for …

This is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have been the last year and it is a unique experience. It combines a fantastic natural landscape with spiritual buildings.

You can visit with a low cost flight from London (or Brussels, Düsseldorf, etc) to Valladolid airport (Villanubla). There, the best way to visit the zone is hiring a car (there are a lot of small villages to see).