Discovering all there is to discover about a historic city requires all the senses. One needs to take in the streets, the architecture, customs, traditions, celebrations, churches and cuisine to get a sense of a city’s soul. Only by experiencing such places and features, are we able to understand their meanings and what they represent as a symbol of a nation’s culture. With the aim of aiding development, tourism and the preservation of Cultural Heritage sites, Iphan (the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute) has joined forces with the CNM (National Confederation of Municipalities) and the OCBPM (Organization of World Heritage Brazilian Cities) to set up a network of managers and draw up a national policy for the management of historical cities and world heritage sites.
In a meeting which took place on 9 March, the President of Iphan, Kátia Bogéa, and the Director of Iphan’s Articulation and Development Department, Marcelo Brito, hosted the President of the OCBPM, Mário Augusto Ribas, and a representative from the CNM, Marta Feitosa, to discuss Iphan’s contribution to the Network of Historical World Heritage Tourist Cities event. The centres for cultural heritage interpretation in Portugal are among the highlights of the programme, and Iphan are sending a committee to investigate the country’s world heritage sites next week. The discussions were set on 11 and 12 April, at the 3rd Brazilian Meeting of Historic Tourist and World Heritage Cities, in Brasília. The event will be attended by federal and state public institutions and municipal and civil society leaders, and the focus will be on how to improve tourism at these locations, with the definition of responsibilities for the structuring of the sites as tourist destinations.
Another central point of the meeting are the ongoing PAC actions in the Historical Cities, a lanmark policy for the preservation of Brazil’s cultural heritage, with resources made available, thanks to Iphan, for the revitalization of 44 cities, aiming for economic and social development and the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.
The third edition of the Brazilian Meeting of Historic Tourist and World Heritage Cities is part of a series of initiatives, in development by Iphan since 2009, with the aim of promoting the effective management of world heritage cities, and has a legal basis – theTCU’s (Federal Audit Court) Acórdão 3155/2016 – which gives priority to questions such as standardization of road signage, visual communication and tourist services; transport infrastructure; accommodation and access; dissemination and promotional strategies and the development of skilled labour, among other aspects, with the ultimate aim of creating sustainable sites and allocating federal resources to the appropriate municipalities.
Source: Iphan Communications Department
