Island Heritage Committee approves the dry stone technique as cultural heritage
Dry stone construction technique, has for centuries dominated large areas of the Balearic islands, especially in the Tramuntana mountain range. This Tuesday, the Island Heritage Committee approved the dry stone technique as an official asset of cultural heritage of the Balearic islands, just like most of the Tramuntana.
A crucial step in preserving the Balearic heritage
The dry stone construction method and technique (described below), was officially declared cultural interest (BIC), a suggestion made by the Department of Environment of Consell de Mallorca.
This declaration,is a crucial initiative to present the dry stone technique as a valid candidate for the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural heritage of Humanity.
This initiative, which is in high focus by the Consell de Mallorca, is also supported by other regions such as Galícia,, Asturias, Catalonia, Extremadura, Aragon, the Canary Islands, Valencia, Andalusia and Castilla, that are all actively participating.
Dry stone construction technique
The dry stone technique, is an ancient construction method based on building with only stones and does not apply any agglutinate.
The dry stone construction technique, is a particular skill set that requires certain know-how and tools to understand and work with the stones and know the characteristics of the stones, in order to arrange sustainable heaps.
The technique is orally passed from generation to generation, which makes it vulnerable to disappearing. Many points of interest in the Tramuntana, are built with the dry stone technique such as walls, paths, fountains, ditches, wells etc.
These years, Mallorca and the Balearic Islands sees an increasing interest from foreign property buyers, who wants to either settle or buy a holiday home on the scenic island of Mallorca. However, many of the old houses being sold in the Tramuntana are being torn down in order to make room for whole new constructions. This often times includes tearing down these beautiful and charasteristic dry stone walls.
