Between the protection of the urban landscape and cultural tourism: risks and opportunities for the painted architecture of the historic center of Malaga (Spain)

Abstract

The cultural legacy of the painted architecture constitutes an identity and unique urban landscape for the city of Malaga. However, it is currently highly modified and subjected to the demands of contemporary dynamics, especially in the face of uncontrolled tourism that affects the changes generated by the aggressive real estate dynamics in its historic centre. The vulnerability of this heritage is so great that it is doomed to disappear unless joint action is taken, and this type of research and knowledge is a manifestation of the implementation of strategies and opportunities that demonstrate its high heritage potential. The conservation of mural paintings, their effect on the colour planes, didactics and the incorporation of new technologies into the discourse of cultural tourism are the elements that constitute the axes on which our research is based. In this work, we present the technical work carried out for the cataloguing of the mural paintings in the historic centre of Malaga, an essential point of reference in all methodological processes of knowledge, treatment and enhancement of cultural assets. Our discourse also proposes, as an opportunity for the planning of a model for the development of cultural tourism, the incorporation of new technologies to add to the high degree of technification acquired by conservation and restoration in recent years, both in terms of scientific instrumentation and increasingly precise and sophisticated analyses.