Spanish mountain towns want to gain visibility. For this reason, coinciding with the celebration of International Mountain Day, 280 towns throughout Spain launched an original challenge to the British Museum this Monday, which they intend to surpass in the number of visits over the next month. If they do not succeed, they assure that the director of the London gallery, the third most visited in the world, will be able to turn them into “museum objects.”
The initiative has come from the Spanish Association of Mountain Peoples, esMontañas, which is based in Boltaña (Huesca) and is chaired by Miguel Gracia from Huesca. Active since 2013, its objective is to promote legislative initiatives and other actions to improve the lives of those who live in mountain areas, stop depopulation and generate economic and social development.
The challenge in question, titled ‘My people in the British’, has been formalized by sending a letter to the director of the British museum, Mark Jones. In the letter they state that, among the 280 municipalities, they aspire to exceed 340,000 visitors in 30 days – from December 11 to January 11 -, a figure that coincides with the number of people registered in December 2022 by the gallery that houses the Rosetta stone and other important works.
As part of the campaign, esMontaña has also edited a video starring the mayor of Montán (Castellón), Sergio Fornes. In just over a minute, and with a great sense of humor, this councilor appears writing the letter sent to the British, in which he congratulates him on his extensive collection.
“You have to see the amount of souvenirs that the English borrowed from their trips to Greece or Egypt. Our mountain towns are also a treasure, the problem is that not so many people come to visit them,” he says before proposing the challenge.
Furthermore, with the conviction that many of these towns are worthy of the museum’s collection, he asks: “How do you think the exceptional Asturian granaries, the historic batipuertas of Candelario, the Plaza de Aínsa, the walls of Morella or the fountains of Montán? He answers himself with “he hasn’t seen a collection like it.”
According to what they said from the association, their intention is for this production to have a presence on social networks so that it serves as a call for those who want to get involved to do so “in the best way they can do it: add visits to the mountain towns with their presence. ”.
To measure visitor numbers, mountain towns will reinforce the methodology used for this count with towns that have tourist offices, by actively listening to the label
