Visual cartograhy: Analysing the applications of city planning projects in the Old Town of Lleida through analog photography

Abstract

The purpose of this research, through visual anthropology, is to collect the plurality of Views of the Old Town of Lleida with the aim of questioning the aestheticization of its areas close to the Hill of the Old Cathedral of Lleida according to the official discourses linked to heritage tourism. As the nerve centre of the city for centuries, the Old Town – the old Canyeret district – has been the scene of numerous applications of urban plans that seek to embellish the neighborhood through gentrifying proposals related to the services sector, private business and the offer of numerous establishments related to consumption. In the midst of these two constantly active processes – the aestheticization of the neighborhood and gentrification – is the Monumental Complex of the Seu Vella, which works to be declared a world heritage by UNESCO through its own patrimonialization process, which becomes, unwittingly, one of the cornerstones that move the urban planning plans applied in its buffer zone. The analogue photographs that accompany the article reflect a brief evolution of the neighborhood between 2021 and 2025, which continues to be one of the most degraded and socially marginalized areas of the city.