The World Tourism Organization (since this year renamed as UN Tourism) created the ‘Best Tourism Villages’ program on May 26, 2021 to recognize villages that are “notable examples of rural destinations with recognized cultural and natural values, that preserve and promote rural and rural values, products and lifestyles.” community and promote tourism as an engine of rural development and community well-being, in commitment to sustainability in all its aspects.
At the end of 2021, a total of 44 towns from 32 countries entered the first list, including Lecumberri and Morella. In December 2022, the list was expanded to 32 towns, including three other Spanish towns: Rupit (Barcelona), Alquézar (Huesca) and Guadalupe (Cáceres). In 2023, 54 towns were chosen, including three Spanish ones: Cantavieja (Teruel), Oñate (Guipúzcoa) and Sigüenza (Guadalajara).
In this fourth edition, 55 towns chosen from more than 260 candidates from more than sixty member states have obtained recognition. UN Tourism. The municipalities of Ainsa (in the Sobrarbe region, Huesca) and Mura (Barcelona) have been recognized this time with the Best Tourism Villages distinction.
Furthermore, the municipality of Pals (Gerona) has been selected to participate in the Upgrade Program to receive advice from UN Tourism and to continue improving and aspire to achieve the distinction again.
The entire urban complex of Aínsa, perched on a hill, maintains the medieval flavor with stone houses and streets, a declared old town Historical-artistic complex in 1965. The former County of Sobrarbe was the first of the Christian territories of the Iberian Peninsula to be reconquered. Walking through its streets is entering more than a thousand years of existence. From the wall and its gates to the castle, the Plaza Mayor and the church of Santa María, passing by its emblazoned houses. The Plaza Mayor is one of the most beautiful in Spain. It is believed that it was built in the 12th century and has maintained its structure since then.
As to Wall It is located in the Bages region of Barcelona, next to the San Lorenzo del Munt and Obac natural park. The town is a gateway to a natural environment of mountains, forests and lakes, with a wide variety of trails in the surrounding area. Mura’s past is deeply linked to viticulture: between 1860 and 1890, Bages was the region with the most vineyards in Catalonia (up to 27,700 hectares). From that time they are preserved in the area some tubsunique buildings built by farmers to store grapes and make wine at the foot of the vineyard. Just over two hundred people currently live in the historic center of Mura and enjoy with tourists the medieval charm of the complex, the narrow cobbled streets, and the essential Romanesque church of San Martín.
The peoples to whom it is granted the UN Tourism seal They obtain international visibility as examples of rural destinations that preserve and promote their landscapes, their biological and cultural diversity, as well as their local values and activities, and that have a clear commitment to triple sustainability.
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