Econcult: Area of Research in Economics of Culture and Tourism

The concept of cultural heritage has been and is a changing and evolving concept over the centuries1); as stated by Zouain (2006) and Casado (2009), we have a rather narrow view of cultural heritage, until the fifteenth or sixteenth century, in which we only consider as such, monuments, sets of buildings and sites with certain historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological and anthropological value. Its protection and recognition is linked to a growing interest in collecting (the natural predecessor of museums). Although later, until the eighteenth century, the concept evolved towards the protection of the artist and his work, through patronage.