Page 12 - HOH

Monday 21 noveMber 2022 locAl
A10

“Take your car off the beaten track to meet our monuments and

their stories”

ORANJESTAD — The mix of required and there has to
cultures in Aruba is very be a certain uniqueness. If
visible in its architecture as it was changed too much
-like in all cultures-, monu- throughout time or there
ments reflect your history are already any of the
and your people. If you same kind it is a no go.”
take the chance to leave
the beach for a little while Useless islands
and take your car off the There is a difference be-
beaten track you will be tween the islands when it
surprised what you see. comes to monuments, as
Anne Witsenburg is direc- Witsenburg explains. “That
tor of the Monument Fund goes back to their history.
Aruba (SMFA) and points Curacao used to be a very
out precisely why a monu- wealthy island where many
mental trip should not lack -mainly Dutch- merchants
in your vacation’s itinerary. lived close together and
The fund owns 15 monu- that is the reason you find
ments, out of the 36 pro- this typical colonial Dutch
tected monuments in the style buildings packed in
island. “But there are over certain areas nowadays.
300 more monuments on They have more than 20
the list to be protected years of United Nations “That is the reason you find all need to decide upon ideas mostly came from
and of course we dream Educational, Scientific all these typical small hous- the selling.” They cooper- the wives”, she says laugh-
to see that become reality and Cultural Organization es scattered around the ate with the government ing.
as soon as possible.” The (UNESCO) heritage. Than island. We actually have office of monuments be-
international guidelines scattered around the rest the same amount of monu- cause they set the rules of Sustainable driven
that apply for monuments of the island you will see the ments as Curacao though what you can and cannot Sustainability is a big thing
decide whether it will be smaller country houses.” way smaller.” do to a protected monu- to the Monument Fund Aru-
a protected monument or Aruba and Bonaire were ment. “We also have the ba. Witsenburg: “Obviously
not. “The building or ob- called the useless islands Magic local touch task to maintain the build- to restore old buildings and
ject needs to be at least 50 in the colonial time, so any Some of the monuments ings which is an ongoing not destroy them to build
years old, a special value Indian willing to live here owned by the Monument process. The wind, the salt new ones is already sustain-
in architecture or to history was given a small piece Fund Aruba are the light in the air and the sun that able in itself. Than we have
or to the people of Aruba is of land to build his home. house, town hall, water not only burns human bod- the technical sustainability
tanks in both Oranjestad ies but also buildings are as in using the right materi-
and San Nicolas. “We are huge challenges. Next to als and techniques but also
wealthy in different styled that we do education, cre- the social sustainability.
monuments and my sug- ate awareness and main- That includes looking at the
gestion is to discover this tain public relations about non-tangible part of heri-
world outside of the tourist our monuments.” tage: the stories to be told,
zone. The book Monumen- the music to be played, the
tal Guide comes in handy The office of the Monu- dinners that were cooked
as there are three maps in- ment Fund is actually lo- in the places we try to re-
side that guide you to the cated in a monument itself. store. That keeps it alive.
monuments and tell you The building is beautiful Most of our monuments are
about them. But there are and has a tropical style. meant to be lived in so we
also possibilities to have “This house goes back to would like to reintroduce
your personal people the 1920’s when it was the joy of living in a monu-
guide. And the best is that built as a vacation house ment. We work together
I can almost guarantee by Aruban entrepreneur with private companies
you the magic of the lo- Croes. He and his family to look into that.” In their
cal touch when you bump came here to the outdoors office they installed solar
into an authentic cunucu as in those times there was panels, use LED lightning
house (country house) and only cunucu (countryside) and recently implement-
talk to the owners. They will here. They had big parties ed an electrical charging
proudly share their family and enjoyed leisure time point for electric vehicles.
history with you.” with family and friends.”
Richer Arubans at that The Monument Fund Aru-
Outside inspiration time looked outwards for ba is open every day from
The Monument Fund ac- architecture inspiration as Monday to Friday from
quires or buys monuments that was considered chic, 8am to 5pm. You are more
and restores them back Witsenburg explains. Either than welcome to ask for
into their former glory. to the US (art deco style information, guiding and
Than they rent it out. “That like the water tower in San help. For more information
sounds easy, but it is in- Nicolas), Holland (Dutch check out their Facebook
credibly complex as most colonial style) or Colom- page stichting monument-
monuments have multiple bia/Venezuela. “This house en fonds aruba and the
owners due to the fact that is inspired by a villa around website http://www.monu-
inheritances are split and Cartagena, Colombia. The mentenfondsaruba.com.q