Heritage Lab in Spain

In May 2025, Barcelona became a hub of innovative dialogue and inclusive heritage with the launch of the Miretage Heritage Lab, organised by the local partners of the project: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Mozaika, and La Xixa Teatre. The event brought together around twenty professionals from the fields of culture, heritage, community activism, and academia to reflect on how to recognise, preserve, and activate the religious heritage of minorities as an integral part of the country’s collective narrative. 

One of the central ideas that emerged from the first session was the need to recognise minority religious heritage as an integral part of the city’s collective narrative, rather than treating it as an exception or a mere curiosity. The Lab also emphasised the need for sustained institutional commitment beyond sporadic projects, as well as for the inclusion of religious minority communities as active agents in the design and implementation of heritage policies. 

Two additional sessions of the Miretage Heritage Lab took place in June 2025, introducing a series of “sensory exploration” activities at the Centre Civic Drassanes. The aim of this heritage laboratory was to invite participants to engage in collective reflection, surfacing new insights into the relationship between senses, spirituality, and diversity. 

The 13 participants were invited to journey through five sensory stations—sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste—each designed to evoke personal and spiritual memories. The activity was carried out in silence, promoting introspection and connection. After the exploration, everyone wrote a letter to someone meaningful in their spiritual path, as a way to process and integrate what they had felt.

These Heritage Labs were just the beginning of a collective effort to promote understanding of religious minorities heritage in a multicultural city like Barcelona, highlighting the need for persistent engagement and the invaluable contributions of all religious expressions to the broader societal narrative.