The monasteries of Suso and Yuso, in San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja- Spain), located on the Camino de Santiago, are the backbone of a cultural landscape of crucial importance for explaining the early establishment of Christian monasticism in southwestern Europe during the High Middle Ages and its evolution to the present day. It is a territory where traditions, knowledge, and ways of life rooted in the Benedictine tradition and linked to agricultural activity are being lost. In 2021, the San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation initiated a project based on local community participation to study and catalog the elements that make up this landscape, both material and immaterial, to promote its preservation and value.

In 2021, the San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation initiated a project to study and catalog the elements that make up this landscape, both material and immaterial, to promote its preservation and value. This project was created to address a problem identified at the local level but common to other municipalities with similar characteristics in the Spanish and European context: the deterioration and loss of cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, in rural areas due to depopulation.

The project is based on shared management among several organizations, with a special role for the local community. The San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation acts as a link between collaborating universities  in the research process and local associations, brotherhoods, and the rural school. In the development of the work, which has involved processes of citizen participation to understand the ideas and needs related to this cultural landscape on the part of the local community and has involved teachers and students from the rural school, a heritage community linked to this cultural landscape has been formed.

The heritage community also has an international dimension because over the past three years, this project has been integrated into the World Heritage Volunteers initiative (UNESCO), and young people from five continents and more than 10 different nationalities have collaborated with our team and maintain their connection to the territory.

The objectives of this project are:

01_ Investigate and make visible the heritage elements and values that make up this cultural landscape, define this landscape, and imagine and build a sustainable future based on it.

02_ Understand the perception that the local community has of this landscape, both from the point of view of its historical development and its recent significance.

03_ Promote awareness of the social, environmental, and ecological value of the landscape and engage the population in its protection and dissemination.

04. Recover the traditional knowledge of an agricultural society based on subsistence economy as a source of knowledge for responsible production and consumption.

05_ Transfer knowledge through the creation of joint experiences between creatives, professionals in Cultural Heritage, and the local community.

06_ Create spaces for dialogue and citizen participation for the study, care, conservation, and dissemination of Heritage where links are generated between people of different ages, genders, religions, backgrounds, and education through cultural heritage to promote tolerance and well-being.

07- Make visible and claim the role of the rural school and local associations as drivers of social and cultural development in this territory.

This project has been funded by: Grants for projects for the conservation, protection, and dissemination of declared World Heritage Sites. 2021, 2022 and 2023 Call. Ministry of Culture and Sport.

The timetable for implementation would be as follows:

September- December 2024: Development of a guide map of this landscape with the participation of the local community. Adaptation of these guide maps to Easy Reading in collaboration with heritage technicians, people with disabilities and support association for people with disabilities. Signaling of the highlighted points of the route with QR codes.

September 2024 (in the EHD/JEP 2024 framework to  March  2025): Organization of guided heritage itineraries to explore this landscape.

The monasteries of San Millán de Yuso and Suso are part of the extensive network of Benedictine monasteries that contributed to the territorial organization of Europe and the creation of a culture that was common to several European regions. Today, they remain a cultural reference at the national and international level as they were included in the World Heritage List in 1997, among other reasons, for being an exceptional testimony to the introduction and survival of Christian monasticism from the 6th century to the present. With this project, we aim to recover and make known elements of this European Benedictine culture that are at risk of disappearing.

It is a project that is based on collaboration at different levels, local, national and international.Main partners in the project: Fundación San Millán de la Cogolla, City Council of San Millán de la Cogolla, Local women's association, CRA Entrevalles  (local school), Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Research Group: Cultural Heritage Management Group of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Foundation Territorios Patrimoniales (Chile), World Heritage Center UNESCO, Ministry of Culture Spain.

The San Millán de la Cogolla Foundation, as a representative of the heritage community of this territory, has been a part of the Faro Convention Network since 2017 a foro where we have shared this project. 

We work to create connections between people through heritage ( example young volunteers from all around the world working with local community)

We have the vision of cultural heritage as a resource, rather than an end or goal in itself.

We involve young volunteers in the project and also local young people and children. 

In our project we propose to transfer the knowledge acquired during these years to a digital guide map of this landscape adapted to easy reading so that it is accessible to all people. This map will be posted on the website and shared through social media.