Linking Geological and Architectural Heritage in a Singular Geosite: Nueva Tabarca Island (SE Spain)

This work presents the singular case of Nueva Tabarca island (SE Spain), which is an excellent example where stone-built monuments and historical quarries greatly enhance the geoheritage interest of this site. This small western Mediterranean island brings together a rich, diverse geological record and a baroque architectural heritage represented by a fortified village. The geoheritage constitutes the bedrock of the historical and architectural monuments. In addition, though, the building stones can be used to interpret the litho- and bio-facies, which provide significant geological knowledge to better understand the island’s geosedimentary history. Furthermore, the diverse settings of the building stones allow a didactic and integrated reading of the erosional processes that can affect these stones. In short, architectural heritage becomes an alternative tool to study geology and promote geoheritage. The characterization and inventory of the local geoheritage has allowed us to propose a geotourism route of ten sites of special interest. The sites were selected due to their relevance showing the geological context, the building stones used in the architectural heritage, and the conservation state and the weathering processes that affect rocks. This paper evidences that geosites can be of special significance, particularly in geotourism, precisely due to their huge potential to connect heritages of varied natures. The closer the links between geology, history, and architecture, the more people will be interested in and concerned about geoheritage. This research was supported by projects GRE12-03, GRE14-05 (University of Alicante) and GV/2018//109 (Generalitat Valenciana).