Strengthening Efforts to Protect and Safeguard the Industrial Cultural Heritage in Montilla-Moriles (PDO). Characterisation of Historic Wineries

Abstract

Industrial heritage is linked to the cultural processes that human society sets through the traces from the past. The conservation and dissemination of this industrial–cultural heritage are crucial for sustainable urban development, and positively influences the transition to resilient and sustainable cities. The wine industry around Montilla has suffered as a result of a sharp reduction of the vineyard area in the last 25 years. Wineries, as one of the historic typologies of wine-making facilities in the Montilla-Moriles Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), as well as their materials and construction techniques, are a reference in the agricultural landscape of Montilla. Many historic wineries are the result of the abandonment and cessation of the wine industry. These buildings are linked to the agrarian activity in this area, mostly wine-making, although in some cases, they coexist with similar production processes, such as milling the fruit of the olive grove. This research characterises and analyses four historic wineries in the Montilla-Moriles PDO, which represent an example of architecture in the wine-making transformation during the 19th–20th centuries. This manuscript contributes to the attainment of some objectives set in one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), protecting and disseminating the industrial cultural heritage in Montilla-Moriles.