TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

174 TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 7.4.3. La Garriga: Giving meaning to the territory The aim was to explain the area’s evolution, the town planning of the municipality, and the stories behind it through its heritage and the creation of equipment, products, visits, and brochures. To this end, since 2012, projects have been based on Heritage Interpreta- tion as a discipline, understood as an effective tool for what we were trying to achieve, and also as a strategy to build a unique offer. Most activities are based on heritage interpretation, such as guided tours by interpreter- guides and self-guided tours . Some of these visits have been dramatized or conducted by experts or specialists on different fields, spaces, or people. Signposting and site musealization are the most common tools employed. These are more ambitious projects, especially with the implementation of interpretation elements (Interpretation Stations) in the street, on site, in the open air, that try to put the focus on the meanings of the area. All these items also play a relevant role as landmarks in the landscape, helping to focus attention on the elements we want to be highlighted. Heritage Interpretation is a tool for social and environmental transformation too, as it tries to give visibility to inequalities and to the diversity found in La Garriga (social, urban, landscape, economic, territorial...), with an intersectional approach and storytelling. The Visitors’ Centre management and the town’s tourism and heritage offer is out - sourced through a public service concession. Knowledge and training in heritage interpretation are required in order to be able to develop any activities. In the same vein, since 2014, an annual heritage interpretation training course has been organize d , being the goal of this course the provision of ongoing training for the staff involved in the management of La Garriga and, at the same time, to raise awareness of this discipline in Catalonia. As a result of these courses, the first Heritage Interpretation manual in Cat- alanwas published in 2020: “Heritage Interpretation. How to provoke thoughts, questions, and meanings”. Image of the Centro de Visitantes de la Garriga (La Garriga visitors’ centre). The gateway to the village. Picture by Anna Mas