Los itinerarios culturales: caracterización y desafíos de una nueva categoría del patrimonio cultural mundial

this paper studies in depth the progress that cultural routes, as a new category of world cultural heritage, introduce in heritage protection, as a result of their multidimensional, transnational and wide territorial extension. for this purpose it focuses on both its scientific definition and its differentiation from other heritage categories, as well as on the challenges that set out its full assumption in the framework of the convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage. to this end we analyze the doctrinal documents developed by the international committee on cultural routes of icomos, their inadequate assimilation in the operational guidelines for the implementation of the world heritage convention and the nomination of various cultural routes (or segments of), that have been inscribed according to other heritage categories, resulting in their underrepresentation in the world heritage list. finally, we suggest some lines of work that should be addressed in the future to achieve a better recognition and assimilation of cultural routes, focusing on the development of new principles and guidelines that are adequate to their peculiarities and able to improve the reporting and evaluation procedures of such nominations, as well as their subsequent homogeneous and shared management.