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Friday 7 September 2018

SMFA is interested in adding a beautiful

Cunucu House to their collection

history and your people. when it was built as a va-
If you take the chance to Outside inspiration cation house by Aruban
leave the beach for a little The Monument fund ac- entrepreneur Croes. He
while and take your car off quires or buys monuments and his family came here
the beaten track you will and restores them back to the outdoors as in those
be surprised what you see. into their former glory. times there was only Cunu-
Anne Witsenburg is direc- Than they rent it out. “That cu (countryside) here. They
tor of the Monumentsfund sounds easy, but it is in- had big parties and en-
Aruba and points out pre- credibly complex as most joyed leisure time with fam-
cisely why a monumental monuments have multiple ily and friends.” Richer Aru-
trip should not lack in your owners due to the fact that bans at that time looked
vacation’s itinerary. inheritances are split and outwards for architecture
all need to decide upon inspiration as that was con-
The fund owns 12 monu- the selling.” They cooper- sidered chic, Witsenburg
ments, out of the 36 pro- ate with the government explains. Either to the US (art
tected monuments in the office of monuments be- deco style like the water
island. “But there are over cause they set the rules of tower in San Nicolas), Hol-
300 more monuments on what you can and cannot land (Dutch colonial style)
the list to be protected do to a protected monu- or Colombia/Venezuela.
and of course we dream ment. “We also have the “This house is inspired by
to see that become real- task to maintain the build- a villa around Cartagena,
ity as soon as possible.” ings which is an ongoing Colombia. The ideas mostly
ORANJESTAD — Last Friday serve the monuments in The international guidelines process. The wind, the salt came from the wives”, she
board members of Monu- top condition for the com- that apply for monuments in the air and the sun that says laughing.
mentsfund Aruba (SMFA) munity of Aruba. This house decide whether it will be not only burns human bod-
signed a Letter of Intent is in a very good condition a protected monument or ies but also buildings are The Monument fund Aru-
with the ministry of culture including the interior and not. “The building or ob- huge challenges. Next to ba is open every day from
of Aruba. In this document furniture thanks to the ef- ject needs to be at least 50 that we do education, cre- Monday to Friday from 8 to
both parties declare their fort of the family to main- years old, a special value ate awareness and main- 5. You are more than wel-
interest in acquiring/ rent- tain this house as original as in architecture or to history tain public relations about come to ask for informa-
ing the Cunucu House at possible through the years. or to the people of Aruba our monuments.” tion, guiding and help. For
Pos Abou 19. No major restoration will be is required and there has to The office of the Monument more information check
needed once the house is be a certain uniqueness. If fund is actually located in a their Facebook page Stich-
SMFA has been in contact bought just some mainte- it was changed too much monument itself. The build- ting Monumenten Fonds
with the family for over a nance works. throughout time or there ing is beautiful and has a Aruba and the website
year now, looking for the are already any of the tropical style. “This house www.monumentenfondsa-
possibility to preserve this Monumentsfund Aruba same kind it is a no go.” goes back to the 1920’s ruba.com. q
beautiful typical house. does not receive any sub-
After signing this LOI Monu- sidy from the government
mentsfund Aruba will start and for every potential proj-
the process of looking for fi- ect that involves acquiring
nancing for this project and a new monument we must
start with negotiations with make sure to have a long-
the government of Aruba term lessee and financing
for a rental agreement. from local banks. This is the
Once finalized we can process SMFA is getting
continue with signing of the started with right now in the
purchase agreement with hope that we will be soon
the owners of the house back again at Pos Abou 19
and the petition to the with all the partners for the
Monuments bureau for pro- signage of the rental and
tection and designation as purchase agreements and
protected monument. make sure that this beauti-
ful Cunucu House from the
Monumentsfund Aruba Tromp family known as “Tan
considers this a very impor- Tin’s House’ will be kept for
tant project. We currently future generations.
own twelve monumental
buildings but this will be Monumentsfund Aruba
our first typical Cunucu The mix of cultures in Aruba
House that will be added is very visible in its architec-
to our collection. One of ture as -like in all cultures-,
our main goals is to pre- monuments reflect your