The Consell de Mallorca has unanimously approved, this Tuesday, in the Heritage Commission, the proposal to safeguard this heritage of the island as an asset of intangible cultural interest.
Mallorca’s neules caladas are now officially protected. The Consell de Mallorca unanimously approved, this Tuesday, in the Insular Commission of Heritage, the proposal to safeguard this heritage of the island as an asset of intangible cultural interest. In this way, explains the vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca and councillor of Culture and Heritage, Antònia Roca, ‘the neules caladas now have institutional protection while the official process is being completed’.
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The neules caladas of Mallorca, officially protected
This is the first file to be processed by the Consell Asesor de Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial, created this year by the Consell de Mallorca to protect and safeguard the island’s traditions and cultural expressions. This group of experts is made up of the historian Juan José Soler Martínez, the writer and oral literature researcher Caterina Valriu Llinàs, the chronicler of the city of Palma Bartomeu Bestard Cladera, the musicologist Eugènia Gallego Cañellas and the fashion craftswoman and researcher Joana Maria Borrás Riera.
Next steps
On the 9th of December, the Consell de Mallorca’s Advisory Council for Intangible Cultural Heritage began the process of declaring the neules as an item of intangible cultural interest to protect and safeguard this traditional expression of the island. This Tuesday, 17th December, the Consell de Mallorca approved the proposal at the Insular Heritage Commission. The associations involved, such as the Associació de Neulers de Mallorca, the Federació de Municipis and the Bishopric of Mallorca, will now be notified. Next, a public hearing will be held for two months, and finally, in 2025, the definitive proposal will be put to a vote in the plenary session of the Consell de Mallorca, as is done with any declaration of BIC processed by the institution. Even so, Antònia Roca points out, as of today the neules caladas already enjoy protection.
The vice-president and councillor of Culture and Heritage, Antònia Roca, celebrates that ‘after months of intense work, the protection of the neules caladas is now a reality: we are protecting them so that they do not fall into oblivion and so that they form part, forever, of our culture’.
The protection of the neules arrives in December, just in time for the Christmas holidays. For this reason, the Consell de Mallorca has launched a publicity campaign to highlight their value and invite citizens to decorate with neules. The campaign includes the decoration of three emblematic spaces in Palma: the Misericòrdia, the Palau del Consell and the Teatre Principal, with works of art by the neuler Macià Tugores.
In addition, a school competition has been organised for making neules, in which more than 1,700 pupils from 23 schools in Mallorca are taking part. Also, with the intention of involving all groups in this tradition, the Consell de Mallorca has distributed 110,000 neules among the island’s senior citizens’ centres and day centres, so that users can cut them out and decorate their spaces, thus encouraging creativity and active participation. It should be noted that anyone interested in collaborating in the initiative can collect neules at the Misericòrdia and join in this cultural and artistic proposal.