Nájera (La Rioja), Apr 3 (EFE).- The Ministry of Culture has granted the Government of La Rioja the use of the Monastery of Santa María La Real, from the 11th century and located in Nájera, for four years, extendable for another four , for the development of activities linked to the strategic project of the Valley of the Language.
This was announced this Monday in Nájera by the Minister of Culture, Miguel Iceta, who has visited the Monastery of Santa María La Real together with the President of the Government of La Rioja, Concha Andreu.
The transfer of the use of the monastery, which is owned by the Ministry of Culture, will have community funds and Andreu hopes that, in these four years, important results can be seen.
The agreement between both Administrations will make it possible to take advantage of unused areas of the monastery, share the available facilities to get the most out of them and discover important spaces, such as the Knights’ cloister, the church and the royal staircase, Andreu said.
However, the School of Heritage is left out of this agreement, which has its dependencies within the monastery and which will gain “more strength and drive”, the minister specified.
He has underlined the opportunity represented by European funds and the existence of the Valle de la Lengua project, promoted by the Government of La Rioja to promote Spanish as a development tool.
“From now on, the Government of La Rioja will be the one that will revive history and prepare the future of this monastery”, pointed out Iceta, for whom “heritage belongs to everyone and must be available to everyone and, if it is not used, it deteriorates and the public cannot make it their own”.
In addition, Andreu and Iceta visit the monasteries of Yuso and Suso in San Millán de la Cogolla in the afternoon, declared a World Heritage Site for being the cradle of Spanish and where the Global Observatory of Spanish, dependent on the Cervantes Institute, is based.
It has also considered “fair” the claim of La Rioja to recover the Glossas Emilianenses, a document written in San Millán de la Cogolla between the 9th and 11th centuries and which contains the first words in Spanish that are preserved and that, at present, custody of the Royal Academy of History.
