Propuesta de una metodología para la valoración de la significación cultural del patrimonio arquitectónico religioso de piedra y tierra cruda en Nicaragua

The religious architectural heritage of stone (calicanto) and raw earth (adobe and taquezal) in Nicaragua is full of historical, artistic, environmental, technologicalconstructive and symbolic values derived from its use and function. However, this hierarchical and emblematic architecture faces great preservation and safeguarding challenges that threaten the gradual loss of its materiality, that of its associated intangible heritage and the subsequent undermining of social identity. Knowing the cultural significance attributed to it by its custodians and administrators as direct managers is a starting point for understanding the objectives that govern the conservation strategies and their future. In addition, this qualitative research with an ethnographic approach, in correspondence with the new paradigm that defends the integration of the community in the processes of valuation, management and safeguarding of its cultural heritage, proposes to provide a methodology for the valuation of the significance of its religious built heritage integrated by four stages: identification of the communities, understanding of the place, preliminary recognition of values and its attributes through perception studies and finally, the collective evaluation of the cultural significance by its valuation agents. Theoretically, the method is based on doctrinal documents such as the Burra Charter and the Nara Document, which recognize the need for the permanence and transfer of this important heritage, generator of identity and social cohesion, through processes that merit effective collaboration between its communities, national, municipal and private entities.