Page 22 - ATA

A14 LOCAL
Wednesday 18 april 2018
‘Take your car off the beaten track to meet our monuments and their stories’

ORANJESTAD - The mix of ments, out of the 36 pro-
cultures in Aruba is very tected monuments in the
visible in its architecture as island. “But there are over
-like in all cultures-, monu- 300 more monuments on
ments reflect your history the list to be protected
and your people. If you and of course we dream
take the chance to leave to see that become real-
the beach for a little while ity as soon as possible.”
and take your car off the The international guidelines
beaten track you will be that apply for monuments
surprised what you see. decide whether it will be
Anne Witsenburg is direc- a protected monument or
tor of the Monumentsfund not. “The building or ob-
Aruba and points out pre- ject needs to be at least 50
cisely why a monumental years old, a special value
trip should not lack in your in architecture or to history
vacation’s itinerary. or to the people of Aruba
is required and there has to
The fund owns 12 monu- be a certain uniqueness. If

it was changed too much -mainly Dutch- merchants the useless islands in the
throughout time or there lived close together and colonial time, so any Indian
are already any of the that is the reason you find willing to live here was giv-
same kind it is a no go.” this typical colonial Dutch en a small piece of land to
style buildings packed in build his home. “That is the
Useless islands certain areas nowadays. reason you find all these
There is a difference be- They are celebrating 20 typical small houses scat-
tween the islands when it years of Unesco heritage tered around the island.
comes to monuments, as this year. Than scattered We actually have the same
Witsenburg explains. “That around the rest of the is- amount of monuments
goes back to their history. land you will see the small- as Curacao though way
Curacao used to be a very er country houses.” Aruba smaller.”
wealthy island where many and Bonaire were called
Magic local touch
Some of the monuments
owned by the Monument-
fund Aruba are the light
house, town hall, water
tanks in both Oranjestad
and San Nicolas. “We are
wealthy in different styled
monuments and my sug-
gestion is to discover this
world outside of the tourist
zone. The book Monumen-
Paradise in the Caribbean tal Guide comes in handy
as there are three maps in-
side that guide you to the
monuments and tell you
about them. But there are
also possibilities to have
your personal people
guide. And the best is that
I can almost guarantee
you the magic of the lo-
cal touch when you bump
into an authentic cunucu
house (country house) and
talk to the owners. They will
proudly share their family
history with you.”

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