The destruction of cultural heritage as a result of natural and man-made disasters has gone from being an extraordinary event to become a continuous threat. This is the reasoning behind the creation in 2010 of the Emergency and Risk Management Unit at the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute as a form of reacting quickly and effectively to emergency situations in which cultural heritage is damaged or endangered. The technical officers and other employees at the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute who comprise the Emergency and Risk Management Unit act in a period of 24 hours once an alert status has been declared, in coordination with the State Government representative and authorities of the affected autonomous region, in order to take emergency mitigation action, study the necessary actions and evaluate their cost. This information is used to prepare and put into practice the different intervention proposals.