In Europe, cables are buried. In Spain, all too often, the landscape is buried.
More than 9 out of 10 of our towns have overhead power lines in their historic districts. The law already prohibits this; now we need to enforce it and provide funding.
Look up in any of our towns. You’ll see a cobblestone square, a centuries-old church, and facades that have withstood the passage of time with a dignity that cannot be faked. And you’ll see something else as well: a tangle of black cables stretching across the sky from one side to the other, snagging on the eaves and hanging down the facades like a scar. We’ve grown so used to them that we’ve almost stopped noticing them. But they’re still there, marring some of the country’s most beautiful spots.
At the Association of Spain’s Most Beautiful Towns, we work every day to highlight the value of this heritage. And time and again, we run into the same obstacle: an enormous effort to beautify and promote these towns, undermined by overhead wiring that no one wants to take responsibility for.
Let’s Look to Europe
You don’t have to go far to see that this can be done differently. In France, in protected sites, parks, and areas surrounding monuments, the law requires the removal of overhead lines, and any new line near a protected site must be reviewed by heritage architects, who can require operators to bury it.
But the key is not just the requirement—it’s that there’s a system in place to enforce it. Public energy utilities coordinate the underground installation of the three networks—electricity, street lighting, and telecommunications—in a single trench, and the cost is shared among the utility, the department, and the municipality, with the latter covering only a portion. No one leaves the community to face the problem alone.
The power grid is already underground. And virtually all new lines being installed go underground. In Europe, it is understood that a well-maintained landscape is also a form of infrastructure, and investments are made in it.
And here, what does the law say?
This is the hardest part to believe: in Spain, the law already prohibits overhead wiring in historic districts in many cases.
This is not within the jurisdiction of the central government, but rather that of the autonomous communities, and almost all of them include this in their heritage laws. Catalan law expressly prohibits overhead electrical and telephone installations or those attached to building facades in historic districts; these must be routed underground. The law in Castile and León prohibits the installation of exposed cables and conduits in historic sites. The new Andalusian law stipulates that, in these areas, installations must generally run underground. And the Canary Islands go a step further: they require underground installation and make it clear that the cost is borne by the companies, not the residents. Even the national telecommunications law excludes overhead lines on historic heritage buildings.
The regulations, therefore, exist. So why are the cables still there?
What’s Already Up There
The problem lies with the wiring that’s already in place. The regulations are strict for new construction, but they don’t establish a clear, general obligation to bury what was already installed. And that’s where everything gets stuck:
- There is no public mechanism to fund and coordinate the underground installation, as there is in France.
- When a town complains, the blame game begins: the electric company says it’s the operator’s responsibility, the operator says it’s the city’s, and the city says it’s already done its part.
- Added to all this is disused wiring: remnants of old installations that no longer serve anyone and that remain hanging because removing them costs money and no one requires it.
Many towns bury their wiring little by little—two or three streets at a time—as far as a rural town council’s budget will allow. They prepare the section… and then the wait begins, because it’s up to the companies to come and move their cables underground. And they don’t show up. Months go by, sometimes years, and the underground street is still littered with hanging cables, as if the work had never been done.
Double Standards
Because, for the record, cables are buried in Spain. In cities. Where there’s a generous municipal budget, a consortium dedicated to the historic district, or access to major European rehabilitation funds, the work gets done: trenches are dug, utility lines are organized, and the city regains its appearance. The process, moreover, is always the same: the government pays for the trenching, and the companies simply move their cables afterward.
The problem is that this system doesn’t exist for small towns. We don’t have consortia. We don’t qualify for the funds intended for urban neighborhoods. And we’re left on our own to face an impossible bill. Thus, while the historic center of a capital city is modernized, that of a town of three hundred residents—with equal or greater heritage value—remains trapped in a web of cables. Two different standards for the same heritage.
We’re not asking for special treatment. We’re asking to stop being treated as if we don’t exist.
If it can be done, it can be done
And if it can be done, it can be done. This is demonstrated by the most beautiful villages in the rest of Europe, which have made clear skies part of their identity, and it is demonstrated by our own cities every time they organize and bury the utility networks in a historic district. It is not a utopia: it is a matter of resources and determination.
Among Spain’s Most Beautiful Villages, however, historic centers completely free of cables are still a rarity, precisely because the system that exists elsewhere is missing here. Even so, there are beginning to be signs of progress at the institutional level. The Canary Islands Government has shown a willingness to address this issue in our towns, and we are holding discussions with that goal in mind. It is a first step—still a small one—but in the right direction. Hopefully, other autonomous communities—which have jurisdiction over this matter—will follow suit.
Five specific requests
- A dedicated mechanism for rural historic districts: a coordinated and funded program or fund that does for our villages what consortia and urban funds already do for cities.
- That the autonomous communities enforce their own heritage laws, which already prohibit overhead wiring in these areas.
- That electricity and telecommunications companies assume their responsibility, starting with the villages that already have the infrastructure in place and ready for use.
- The removal of disused wiring, which is an eyesore and no longer serves anyone.
- No town should have to pay twice to reclaim its own sky.
Give the sky back to our towns
Caring for a town isn’t just about restoring a church or paving a street. It’s about giving it back its sky. It’s so that visitors can take a photo without a cable cutting across it, and so that anyone considering moving there sees a place that’s well-cared-for from top to bottom.
Our towns are special. Their names say so, and every visitor who discovers them can attest to it. They deserve the same care given to the most beautiful towns in the rest of Europe, and the same care dedicated to our country’s major cities. We are 126 municipalities, and we speak for many more. And we’re going to use that voice.
¿Tu pueblo también lo sufre?
Estamos documentando todos los casos para llevarlos donde haga falta. Si tu municipio arrastra cableado aéreo —o si ya hizo la obra y sigue esperando a que migren la red— cuéntanoslo.