Page 36 - ATA

A16 LOCAL
Friday 28 June 2019

‘Take your car off the beaten track to

meet our monuments and their stories’

wealthy island where many
-mainly Dutch- merchants
lived close together and
that is the reason you find
this typical colonial Dutch
style buildings packed in
certain areas nowadays.
They are celebrating 20
years of Unesco heritage
this year. Than scattered
around the rest of the is-
land you will see the small-
er country houses.” Aruba
and Bonaire were called
the useless islands in the
colonial time, so any Indian
ORANJESTAD - The mix of to see that become real- willing to live here was giv-
cultures in Aruba is very ity as soon as possible.” en a small piece of land to
visible in its architecture as The international guidelines build his home. “That is the
-like in all cultures-, monu- that apply for monuments reason you find all these
ments reflect your history decide whether it will be typical small houses scat-
and your people. If you a protected monument or tered around the island.
take the chance to leave not. “The building or ob- We actually have the same
the beach for a little while ject needs to be at least 50 amount of monuments office of monuments be-
and take your car off the years old, a special value as Curacao though way cause they set the rules of Sustainable driven
beaten track you will be in architecture or to history smaller.” what you can and cannot Sustainability is a big thing
surprised what you see. or to the people of Aruba do to a protected monu- to the Monument fund Aru-
Anne Witsenburg is direc- is required and there has to Magic local touch ment. “We also have the ba. Witsenburg: “Obviously
tor of the Monumentsfund be a certain uniqueness. If Some of the monuments task to maintain the build- to restore old buildings and
Aruba and points out pre- it was changed too much owned by the Monument ings which is an ongoing not destroy them to build
cisely why a monumental throughout time or there fund Aruba are the light process. The wind, the salt new ones is already sustain-
trip should not lack in your are already any of the house, town hall, water in the air and the sun that able in itself. Than we have
vacation’s itinerary. same kind it is a no go.” tanks in both Oranjestad
and San Nicolas. “We are not only burns human bod- the technical sustainability
The fund owns 12 monu- Useless islands wealthy in different styled ies but also buildings are as in using the right materi-
huge challenges. Next to als and techniques but also
ments, out of the 36 pro- There is a difference be- monuments and my sug- that we do education, cre- the social sustainability.
tected monuments in the tween the islands when it gestion is to discover this ate awareness and main- That includes looking at the
island. “But there are over comes to monuments, as world outside of the tourist tain public relations about non-tangible part of heri-
300 more monuments on Witsenburg explains. “That zone. The book Monumen- our monuments.” tage: the stories to be told,
the list to be protected goes back to their history. tal Guide comes in handy The office of the Monument the music to be played, the
and of course we dream Curacao used to be a very as there are three maps
inside that guide you to fund is actually located in a dinners that were cooked
the monuments and tell monument itself. The build- in the places we try to re-
you about them. But there ing is beautiful and has a store. That keeps it alive.
are also possibilities to tropical style. “This house
have your personal people goes back to the 1920’s Most of our monuments are
guide. And the best is that when it was built as a va- meant to be lived in so we
I can almost guarantee cation house by Aruban would like to reintroduce
you the magic of the lo- entrepreneur Croes. He the joy of living in a monu-
cal touch when you bump and his family came here ment. We work together
into an authentic cunucu to the outdoors as in those with private companies
house (country house) and times there was only cunu- to look into that.” In their
talk to the owners. They will cu (countryside) here. They office they installed solar
proudly share their family had big parties and en- panels, use LED lightning
history with you.” joyed leisure time with fam- and recently implement-
ily and friends.” Richer Aru- ed an electrical charging
Outside inspiration bans at that time looked point for electric vehicles.
The Monument fund ac- outwards for architecture
quires or buys monuments inspiration as that was con- The Monument fund Aru-
and restores them back sidered chic, Witsenburg ba is open every day from
into their former glory. explains. Either to the US (art Monday to Friday from 8 to
Than they rent it out. “That deco style like the water 5. You are more than wel-
sounds easy, but it is in- tower in San Nicolas), Hol- come to ask for informa-
credibly complex as most land (Dutch colonial style) tion, guiding and help. For
monuments have multiple or Colombia/Venezuela. more information check
owners due to the fact that “This house is inspired by their Facebook page stich-
inheritances are split and a villa around Cartagena, ting monumenten fonds
all need to decide upon Colombia. The ideas mostly aruba and the website
the selling.” They cooper- came from the wives”, she http://www.monumenten-
ate with the government says laughing. fondsaruba.com.q