Manifesto Save Averly from demolition.

Diana Sánchez Mustieles, 2014

SAVE AVERLY FROM DEMOLITION

· Manifesto ·

        In March 2011 the Consejo de Patrimonio Histórico del Estado (Spanish Council for National Heritage) approved the Plan Nacional del Patrimonio Industrial (National Plan for Industrial Heritage). This plan was directed by the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (Spanish Institute for Cultural Heritage) and its goal was to protect the most important industrial buildings and compounds in Spain, endangered not only due to the lacking concern for the Industrial Heritage in the Society but also due to the situation of many of this nineteenth-century compounds in central urban districts.

         Due to the great number of industrial buildings and compounds built in Spain during the 19th and 20th centuries, the National Plan for Industrial Heritage included only a basic index of 100 industrial compounds that were considered essential to understand the History of Industrialization in Spain according to The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH). The Fundición Averly, an incredible foundry built in the 19th century in Zaragoza (Aragon, Spain), was included among them. Actually, this foundry owned by the Averly-Bea-Hauke family during more than 150 years was considered one of the best preserved foundries in Europe, particularly because thousand of original moulds, models, prototypes and machines were preserved by the family.

        However, in a few days, and only a couple of years after the National Plan for Industrial Heritage was approved, the Fundición Averly is going to be demolished. This way, in the plot now occupied by Averly two hundred luxury flats are going to be built spread in several 18-storeyed towers.

        We believe that the irrational and speculation-based growing model of our cities is obviously out-dated and we would like to go for a new urban model based both on Sustainability and on the preservation of our Architectural Heritage. So, this way, we would like to make a call to the Spanish Government, the Aragonese Government and the Zaragoza City Hall asking them to stop the demolition of the Fundición Averly.

        WE, in summary, SUPPORT THE PRESERVATION OF THE WHOLE COMPOUND OF THE FUNDICIÓN AVERLY IN ZARAGOZA (ARAGON, SPAIN) and WE SUPPORT THE COMPLAINT MADE BY APUDEPA (Acción Pública para la Defensa del Patrimonio Aragonés) AGAINST THE DEMOLITION OF THIS COMPOUND, ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY OF INDUSTRIALIZATION IN SPAIN.

1st January 2014.

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