Fundación Banco Santander and Fundación Cultural de la Nobleza Española organise this annual lecture series dedicated to shedding light on the most relevant events in Spanish and Hispanic American history.

At the seventeenth edition, titled “Una corona de letras: libros y autores de la Monarquía Hispánica”, historians Carmen Iglesias, Carmen Sanz, Feliciano Barrios and Jaime Olmedo underscored the importance of the work of sixteenth and seventeenth-century humanists, literati, printers and grammarians for making Spanish a truly global language, not only in the arts but also in political and government circles.

Since 2020, this series has been entirely virtual. Videos of the lectures were posted weekly from 6 June on the foundation’s website and YouTube channel.

Fundación Banco Santander created this forum of reflection and debate in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and proposals about the main challenges facing today’s society.

At each of the five sessions held in 2023, an expert introduced the topic that was subsequently discussed by various professionals from the world of culture, politics, science and technology, with UNED lecturer José Ignacio Torreblanca moderating the debate.

For the first session on 28 April, telecommunications engineer Nuria Oliver talked about breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence and their ethical and social implications.

On 29 June, Elisa de la Nuez, federal prosecutor and secretary-general of Fundación Hay Derecho, addressed the subject of institutional governance and transparency.

The encounter on 11 July—introduced by Víctor Lapuente, who has a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Oxford—was given over to a discussion of the causes that have plunged liberal democracies around the world into crisis.

On 26 September, Javier Niño Pérez, Director for the Americas in the European External Action Service, analysed the impact of the latest global transformation in Latin America.

Finally, on 22 November, Ana Terrón i Cusí, director of Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas, opened a debate on the challenges posed by the African migration trend.

The main conclusions of these sessions and information about the speakers who participated in them can be found on the foundation’s website.

Under the terms of an agreement signed in 2022 with Fundación UCEIF (University of Cantabria Foundation for the Study and Research of the Financial Sector), Fundación Banco Santander became responsible for coordinating the conservation and digitisation of these archives, an essential piece of documentary heritage for understanding Spain’s economic history.

The archives contain fifty-one sets of documents pertaining to Banco Santander and other financial institutions, nine book collections, a collection of banking artefacts, and another of stock and bond certificates and other bank documents.

The task of seasonally analysing and monitoring environmental conditions in the archives (pest control, relative humidity, temperature and luminance) was completed in 2023, which will make it possible to devise a preventive conservation plan for the document collections and refit the building. Additionally, 491 documents were cleaned.

Each year, Fundación Banco Santander and the association Hispania Nostra organise these awards to recognise best practices in the conservation and restoration of Spain’s cultural and natural heritage.

In 2023, the Land or Landscape Intervention Award went to the work done on a complex in Pulpí, Almería, consisting of ancient Roman mines, the natural monument that is the great geode of Mina Rica, the Museo de la Luminiscencia and the Castle of Terreros.

In the category of Conservation of Heritage as a Factor of Socio-Economic Development, the winning project was the maintenance and recovery of the portable items, properties and intangible assets dated to between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries that constitute the artistic and historical legacy of Valderrobles, Teruel.

Finally, the Legado Vivo project, dedicated to promoting and preserving the natural riches and beauty of the landscape in Murcia’s Ricote Valley, won the Cultural and Natural Heritage Signage and Publicity Award.