Turismo para valorizar e conservar: o sítio arqueológico da Igreja Velha - Itabaiana, Sergipe

Abstract

The Igreja Velha (archaeological site Santo Antônio), in Igreja Velha village, Itabaiana (Sergipe state) can be considered a regional historical landmark. It is one of the oldest testimonies of the beginning of Portuguese colonization and integration in the state of Sergipe, dating from the sixteenth century. On the banks of the Jacarecica River, the Old Church was built, together with an Arraial de Santo Antônio, which was to be the beginning of the municipality of Itabaiana, since, from the intermediation of the Arraial de Santo Antônio, the owners of the sesmarias , populating the marginal areas to the Jacarecica river. Currently, the Old Church is still the target of symbolic representations by a significant portion of the local population, mostly farmer in a peasantry system, who maintains practices associated with Christianity. On the other hand, it is in ruins and gradually undergoing a process of gradual erasure of its history, due to lack of effective policies of protection of cultural heritage and lack of articulation between the public power and the local population, which is usually associated with mismanagement public. Thus, in this paper, we intend to propose an integrated program for the valorization, conservation and integration of the archaeological site of the Old Church. To use the concepts of archaeological tourism as a practice that integrates population, heritage and generation of local income, and heritage education to form multipliers of valorization and conservation. Thus, in a non-interventional field trip, the problems, potential and possible dialogue between archaeological (integrated) tourism and the preservation of cultural heritage were observed; and semi-structured interviews with the local community and municipal cultural agents of Itabaiana, which allowed the elaboration of the proposal of a management program.