02261nas a2200145   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260004000043100002000083245010500103856015300208300001400361520169300375020004702068       2012                            d  c2012///bCambridge University Press1 aJ.L.I. Londoño00aAn exceptional picture of a Spanish colonial city: Historic centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox, Colombia  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84924113460&doi=10.1017%2fCBO9781139567657.015&partnerID=40&md5=404407f05d27201fcc076489d0dd80ee  a132-143, 3 aThis is a very significant colonial settlement with more than 500 years of layered history and heritage values virtually intact, together with an intangible heritage legacy that holds potential and a firm relationship with the economic activities of its residents. 500 years of heritage values The Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox is the result of a set of complex associations and diversity of heritage. It is located on the natural landscape featuring a highly swampy territory, a branch of the Magdalena River, the country’s most important waterway. This is a very significant colonial settlement with more than 500 years of layered history and heritage values virtually intact, together with an intangible heritage legacy that holds potential and a firm relationship with the economic activities of its residents. The rise and stagnation of this site as a commercial port was due mainly to the change of the main stream of the Magdalena River which led to a decline in its commercial role, indirectly resulting in the conservation of its cultural heritage built over centuries. Today the economic stagnation is reflected in the poverty indicators of its population, not only at the site itself but throughout the region, which has also been affected by floods, especially during the last two rainy seasons. In the fight against poverty, the protection of natural and cultural heritage has become the focus around which priorities are set and a chain of actions are taken that enable not only the preservation of the site’s outstanding universal value but also its social appropriation and sustainable development by the community, including economic and social development.  a9781139567657 (ISBN); 9781107610750 (ISBN)