REDALH: Cross-border Cultural Heritage: Creation of Network of Management Professionals of Heritage is a Project that is jointly financed by the European Union in the Second Notification for Projects of the Programme of Spain-External Frontiers Cooperation and the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.
Project carried out by the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife in collaboration with the Regional Ministry of Culture of the Region of Tangiers-Tetouan.
The idea of this project has arisen from the need that has been observed over the period of more than 20 years in which part of the team of restorers of the department of conservation of the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife has been working on the monument. The presence of historical buildings linked by a common artistic tradition reveals the continuity of knowledge and practical and decorative techniques. The analysis and further transfer of this knowledge held as conservation strategy and linked to living craft practices constitute one of the main values to recover.
On the other hand, the conservation and restoring tradition of the Monumental Complex of the Alhambra y Generalife is the frame of reference for educational practice to develop the project.
The restoration workshops carry out maintenance work and restoration of all the decorative elements of plaster, wood and ceramics, among other materials. Over these years of work it has been possible to recuperate part of the artisanal techniques used by Nasrid workers, and which still exist, although with great difficulty, in Morocco, where these techniques are being replaced by new products and more economical methods of work. However, the restoration of buildings of Islamic design in Europe and throughout the world as a whole, demands knowledge of the different stages and practical and decorative techniques, in order to tackle restoration successfully. Morocco is currently in possession of artisanal knowledge of incalculable value for the suitable conservation interpretation of al-Andalus.
There again, much of the restoration work carried out in Morocco continues to be of a specifically artisanal type, ignoring the principles and conclusions that have reached the theory and practice of restoration during the last century, and which are common scientific material throughout Europe.
Due to this situation and the present-day problems we can appreciate the need for the development of a project permitting an exchange of crafts techniques and scientific-technical awareness between these two countries. This will promote the training of specialised workers and the creation of a means of exchange of information and dissemination of knowledge.
