Barcelona is using the renovation of a mediaeval garden to empower people with disabilities and advance sustainability. The collaboration between the Municipal Institute of Culture and the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities is giving fruitful results with positive impact on the city’s carbon footprint and its social fabric.
The mediaeval garden revived
Since 1983, the historical monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes has been managed by the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Culture. After the renovation of the monastery itself, now a historical museum, the city started working on the garden space.
“The idea to recover the vegetable garden from a historical perfective allows us to explain more about the history of the monastery and to give the city a natural space,” says Anna Castellano, Museum Director at the Municipal Institute of Culture. The project followed a scientific approach involving specialists from different fields – history, archaeology, biology, botany etc. – to ensure it recreates as closely as possible the look and crops from the mediaeval era.
“We decided to recover the mediaeval allotments as an opportunity to learn about our original agriculture. It’s technology, it’s method, it’s knowledge,” adds Castellano. The garden uses techniques as well as seeds from the era – from before the discovery of the Americas – that are now at risk of extinction. These techniques however are very close to today’s ecological farming, “So this might be something that could be of interest to the new farmers,” says Ferran Urgell Plaza, Accessibility and inclusion officer of the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities.
In addition to a rigorous scientific approach, this project also has an educational vocation. “It helps us explain how our eating habits changed over time, for example,” says Castellano. “We also promote positive values and attitudes towards our environment and start a new dialogue between historical and natural heritage. It’s a very special space for educational and for social projects.”
Making the most of local organisations
The social aspect of this project is woven in its management. “We noticed with similar projects, with good funding, where the handling of the space was taken for granted,” explains Urgell Plaza. “But you definitely need someone to take care of the garden. On the other hand, there’s people that are usually not included in the cultural life of the city who are really interested in agriculture.”
That’s how people with disabilities were invited to take care of the monastery garden. “In the monastery we worked with two NGOs and with people with different profiles, some of them are autistic and others are people with intellectual disabilities,” says Urgell Plaza. The workers get trained and once the harvest is ready, they can help themselves to the fruits – and vegetables – of their labour. The surplus food is then donated to other NGOs that work with social canteens, ensuring no food is wasted.
To keep the carbon footprint of the project to a minimum, the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities contacted organisations in walking distance from the garden, so that people working there can come and go by foot. In addition, the surplus food is delivered by bike and e-bikes in collaboration with another local organisation run by women, Las Mercedes.
Empowering people with disabilities
“People are proud of the work they do here,” says Urgell Plaza. “Bringing these people to the museum to work, is something new. They come every week and they get used to the place and the people who work in the museum. They become part of the community.”
“We are very proud because they certainly are part of our team,” adds Castellano. “When you talk to the people, you should see how this changes their life,” says Urgell Plaza.
A study by the city of Barcelona showed the tangible benefits of the project for participants. It found that gardening among participants with disabilities was associated with personal development and emotional wellbeing. With participants describing feelings of freedom, enhanced autonomy, initiative and creativity, as well as greater capacity to deal with frustration and disappointment.
They also noted changes related to their physical wellbeing, such as increased energy, healthier nutritional habits, and better quality of sleep. The study finally highlighted the creation of new relationships and the identification with a new role in society: from a group in need, to an active group contributing to society. Participants noted that this work improved their social inclusion and interpersonal relations, fostering cooperative and collective skills and expanding their social networks.
Sowing the good work
The Municipal Institute of Culture and the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities have been collaborating and working together for a long time. “We work with the museums of the city to make them more accessible to all kinds of disabilities,” explains Urgell Plaza. The monastery project was both a continuation of this work – as the museum also underwent a renovation that made it accessible to all – and of the ‘Rooftop Garden’ project, already involving around 250 people with disabilities in urban agriculture.
The ‘Rooftop Gardens’ project, seeks the promotion of hydroponic urban gardens farmed by urban residents with disabilities on rooftops of municipal facilities. The people with disabilities come once a week, and learn how to harvest, collect, and plant. As for the monastery project, here too, surplus food is brought to nearby social canteens, food banks, or school canteens by foot, “which is easier because the municipal buildings are in the city centre,” adds Urgell Plaza.
Proud of the work the city has done on heritage preservation, accessibility, and community building, Urgell Plaza and Castellano are keen to inspire others. “We have recently presented the Accessibility Plan for Museums and we’ll present the monastery project as an example too,” says Urgell Plaza. “It’s a good experience and we will be very happy if other museums try to do something similar,” adds Castellano. “And it’s important that the government helps us to open these institutions to everybody.”
Heritage Hub selection
The project in the monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes is one of the ten local good practices selected by the European Heritage Hub project through an open call. Several of the practices are being showcased as part of the ‘Sharing Local Stories’ webinar series and more inspiring stories will be published soon.
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