The water mine of the Casa del Rey Moro in Ronda (Málaga, Spain): a case of reconciling private tourism promotion and the generation of heritage knowledge

Abstract

The tourist exploitation of heritage assets often generates tensions between the economic interests of their private owners and the demands of the protection exercised by public administrations. However, the generation of heritage knowledge, in addition to an unavoidable action of protection, can result in an increase in the tourism potential of the property: on the one hand, it consolidates and expands its cultural interest and, on the other, it produces documentation that can be used to optimise the promotion of its values. The work carried out in the Mine that connects the Casa del Rey Moro with the Tajo in the town of Ronda is a case of this desirable conciliation between private tourism promotion and the generation of heritage knowledge. In a building of great geometric and constructive complexity, a vaulted staircase embedded in the cracks of the Tajo de Ronda, archaeological activities are proposed to reveal some of its historical keys. These archaeological activities require geometric documentation work and architectural analysis of the heritage, which is approached by combining analogue and digital resources (digital capture by scanner, photogrammetry, HBIM modelling). The results obtained have made it possible to improve the tourist exploitation of the property both directly, by enriching the visit with explanatory material in different formats, and indirectly, through promotion in different media using techniques specific to this research.