La Chanca hoping for Intangible Cultural Heritage status

PLANS to declare La Chanca an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity are running out of time.

Although Almeria City Hall voted in 2011 to obtain this status for the emblematic Almeria City neighbourhood, little progress has been made. La Chanca’s features have been insufficiently catalogued and there is still much to be done.  

The regional administration needs to make a case for the neighbourhood’s contribution to social cohesion and a sense of identity visible in literature, the visual arts, photography, film, music and other art forms.

The Junta then needs to propose to the Central Government’s Ministry of Culture that La Chanca is included on Spain’s list of municipalities, beauty spots and artistic or cultural events that aspire to Cultural Heritage status.

If included on the list, La Chanca as well as candidates from all over the world, will be evaluated by a committee of Unesco experts. They will finally announce whether it has earned the coveted World Heritage accolade after a process lasting at least a year.

La Chanca is situated below La Alcazaba, Spain’s second-largest Moorish structure after the Alhambra in Granada, and still retains traces of its Moorish past. It stretches from the fishing port to the slopes of the Sierra de Gador but is by no means one of Almeria City’s smart neighbourhoods as there are undeniable social problems in the area furthest from the fishing port with high unemployment and illiteracy rates.