A New Educational Escape-Room-Based Model for the Sustainable Valorization and Management of Cultural and Natural Heritage

Abstract

Based on the model of the “escape room” game, the activity proposed in this paper centres on the historical site of one of the fiercest battles of the Spanish Civil War (February 1937). The battle site is in the area of Rivas-vaciamadrid, the focal point of the Francoist and Republican camps, which connected the centre of Madrid with one of the city’s most important logistics and military facilities, Alcalà de Henares. The study proposes a new way to use the site and, in particular, proposes a live game aimed at involving different types of participants, aligning it with their specific profiles, whether children, adults or scholars. Its main aim is to propose an activity for the sustainable valorization of this heritage and to raise awareness in participants about this significant piece of history as well as its preservation in the long-term. It should be kept in mind that “Los pueblos que desconocen su Historia están condenados a repetirla”, i.e. “Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it”.

The Rivas-vaciamadrid site is also a source of information and study regarding geological, natural and historical-artistic aspects. One example is the Porphyrio porphiyrio (western swamphen), present in the ecosystem of Rivas-vaciamadrid, which has a noteworthy past having been depicted in the mosaics of both the "Villa Romana del Casale" in Sicily and the Church of "San Vitale", in Ravenna, Italy as well as being reported in writings by Aristotle and Pliny the Elder.