Retrato de José Miguel Merino de Cáceres. - Foto: Carlos Muñoz de Pablos

Perhaps no one has done as much for the built domain of Segovia in recent decades as the architect José Miguel Merino de Cáceres, a child of the city who died on 9 September. Master builder and trustee of the Alcázar since 1973, he was in charge of giving the fortress its old splendor, and so with other monuments of the Castilian capital, including the Cathedral and the Monastery of Saint Mary of Parral. The part he played in getting the town center declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 was decisive. And a lifetime of devotion to preservation was combined with teaching at the Madrid School of Architecture, where he became a chair-holding professor, and to research projects mainly revolving around the history of his birthplace and the dark episodes of heritage pillaging.