Celebrating in Spain the European Year of Cultural Heritage
through our project Passport to Europe
2018 has been the European Year of Cultural Heritage. For that reason, with our project activities we tried to encourage our students and teachers to discover and engage with Europe’s cultural heritage, and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space.
For that reason, we organized cultural visits in Spain which, as well as the open educational resources of the project activities themselves, tried to bring our Historical Heritage and a bit of Europe to our school, teachers, students and classrooms. To acquire a global awareness and understanding of the Common European Project, we prepared cultural visits so that students would learn to value their own Historical Heritage transmitting it to others and immersing in the cultural heritage of other European countries. We felt the cultural richness of our country as well as its idiosyncrasy has travelled far through our activities and students.
Cultural Heritage of Guadalajara:
During the visit to Guadalajara, as a part of the Tourist Guide Activity, we walked around different parts of our town:
- Concordia Park: It is a big green zone and the most representative park in the city. It´s near the historic center. It was built in 1854.
- Infantado Palace: One of the most emblematic landmarks whose owners, the Mendoza family, dukes of El Infantado, embodied all their power in this building.
- La Cotilla Palace: El Palacio de La Cotilla is a seventeenth century building, which is now used as an art school.
Cultural Heritage of Alcalá de Henares, birthplace of Cervantes.
Alcalá de Henares: This town near Madrid, birthplace of the illustrious Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote”, and home to one of the most prestigious universities in Spain, has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Its rich monumental heritage, formed by churches, convents and university buildings, gives us a glimpse of life in Castilia during the Spanish Golden Age.
Cultural Heritage of Madrid
Madrid, the capital of Spain, also known as Villa y Corte. It is the biggest city in the country and the third largest in the European Union with over 3 million inhabitants (more than 6 million in its metropolitan area). We enjoyed a beautiful day walking around the city centre and sightseeing the most well-known building and places. In one of these places, The Prado Museum, one group of the Spanish students had prepared one of the activities in the project, which was The Gymkhana. After having a nice time doing it we went back full of new experiences…