Maritime Historical Cultural Heritage: Puerto Madryn City as a Case Study from Patagonia, Argentina

This article focuses on the Maritime Historical Cultural Heritage (herein after MHCH) of Puerto Madryn. This city, located in Argentinean Patagonia, on the coast of the Nuevo Gulf, is a natural harbor with a rich history of seafaring. Since the 2000s, Argentina’s Underwater Archaeology Program of the National Institute of Anthropology and Latin American Thought (herein after PPROAS-INAPL), has been dedicated to the research and management of archaeological shipwreck sites located on the city’s foreshore, in the Nuevo Gulf, and other locations outside the city limits. In this article, the results of the studies carried out between 2018 and 2024 are presented. The primary aim was to broaden the knowledge of the MHCH of Puerto Madryn, focusing on shipwrecks. The specific objectives include classifying and characterizing the MHCH in a systematic manner, identifying the stakeholders’ interests in this heritage, understanding the various values assigned to the shipwrecks and the threats to their preservation. Based on the information gathered, a set of proposals for heritage activation oriented towards the enjoyment, interpretation and conservation of the MHCH is presented. This approach is innovative in South America for the topic under study.