(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

According to Oxford Dictionary, “trauma” is defined as an unpleasant experience that makes someone feel upset and/or anxious. For the last few years, many studies regarding heritage preservation have confirmed that the bond between heritage and the communities linked to it is so strong that after shocking and destructive events, caused whether by nature or mankind, restoration and rebuilding tend to be a usual practice. Case studies such as the recovery of the Campanile in Venice after its collapse; the rebuilding of monuments or even city centres, as happened in Warsaw, after WWII; or the restoration of the mural paintings after the damage caused by the earthquake that destroyed the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi show how the heritage loss impacts directly on the community and how the recovery of those elements guarantees a certain kind of overcoming process. It is aimed to present the impact of hydropower building policies on heritage and communities during the 20th century, especially in Spain. It is proposed to analyse two different cases relating the destruction of two villages, La Pueblica and Argusino, in Zamora, and to explore how the possibility of being offered an alternative accommodation in a new village affected the communities forced to move. In this sense, it also is intended to introduce the relevance of religious architecture in these contexts. On the one hand, parish churches meant a common facility in new-floor villages built for relocated communities, so it is interesting to discover how they received the building. In addition, building religious architecture was also the way in which some communities try to commemorate and not to forget the experienced trauma of being forced to move and to lose all their heritage, as also happened in other countries, like Wales and the case of Capel Celyn.