Τhe mechanical reproduction of cultural heritage: shifting from touristic areas to public spaces

Abstract

This paper puts forward a coherent argument for an alternative approach to urban monuments and archaeological sites as part of a viable model of sustainable tourism growth for mature “conceptually congested” historic destinations. Today’s fenced off tourist sites with paid entrance should become tomorrow’s freely accessible public spaces, hosting urban, collective activities. This will require the symbolic and actual lifting of fenced boundaries that is, transforming the deterrent, linear limit into an interspace that triggers the mutual penetration of the city’s past and present. My research draws from relevant, contemporary literature that regards monuments neither as well-guarded works of art, nor as remote sceneries or tourist-growth indicators, in order to propose a critical reappraisal of problematic concepts such as the re-emergence of the monuments’ political and cultural dimensions.