Page 18 - AHATA

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local Thursday 7 March 2024

“Take your car off the beaten track to

meet our monuments and their stories”

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