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In Pinar del Río, Cuba UNESCO will contribute to finance the restoration of the town of Viñales
The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) gave our country 75 thousand dollars to rescue the center pf the town and the houses found on the valley, declared Engineer Nidia Cabrera, Director of the Technical Monument Office.

The work to repair the roofs of 98 percent of the houses that made up the area began promptly after the demolishing passing through of hurricanes Gustav and Ike in August and September 2008.

She commented that at first the most important thing was to find a rapid solution for the inhabitants, “now we have to recover the image of the town according to the architectonic standards that identify and characterize them.”

Currently, one of the priorities is the substitution of the initially used fibres to rehabilitate the houses for tropical roofs (made out of clay), that are typical to that community, she emphasized.

The expert pointed out that work is being carried out mainly in the Salvador Cisneros street, the main street in town, where the Culture House, the Museum, the Library and a café shall all be restored apart from the houses.

Over the next year there shall be rebuilt the local plaza, the nucleus where the church, the central park, together with several other building meet up and which is considered the oldest one in the place.

In the Viñales Valley, where there still are elements of vernacular architecture and ancient agricultural traditions, houses and tobacco houses are also being repaired, many of which use guano (palm tree leaves) as roof.

The money given by the UNESCO is a recognition to the work done by Cuba to preserve very important landscapes despite the passing of frequent tropical phenomena, declared Cabrera.

Known all over the world for its Jurassic mountains, Viñales was declared Cultural Landscape of Humanity in December 1999.

(Cubarte)


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