Space as place. Urban, Conservation and Tourist policies in the Historic Core of Rome: the Trevi- Pantheon case study.

Ref.: 168
Key theme: 02 Functional integrity of historic urban landscapes
Date of reception: 29/10/2008

AUTHORS (*Main author)

PORFYRIOU, Heleni * (Italy) - Institute for the Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage (ICVBC), Rome Unit

ABSTRACT

Tourism in historic cities, following the trend of tourist industry, is in continuous increase and specially favoured by a particularly innovative European cultural sector. The negative impact of mass tourism on the conservation of cultural heritage and the impoverishment of central places from their traditional civic values is apparently evident and had already been noticed by European Commission's Reports. However planning and conservation policies in many historic cities continue to be fragmented and short sighted as they result mainly interested to the short term economic advantages of tourism.
The aim of the paper is to investigate on the risks historic cores are subjected to and to analyse urban, conservation and tourist policies through the case study of a segment of Rome. More specifically the paper will pay attention to the historic and monumental squares of Pantheon and Trevi and to the itinerary that connects them. In these squares community life has taken place, through the centuries, consecrating them as places of cultural, artistic and historical importance as areas of collective identity and civic pride, where the sense of belonging grows and takes root.
In Rome, as well as in many other historic centres of European cities, these places, are besieged by the constant increase of mass tourism and are being depleted (of their traditional civic values) and degraded (growing occupation of public property, disproportionate increase of trading activities, filth, bad smells, overcrowding). Moreover, the authorities in charge of preserving the monuments that often adorn these areas sometimes undertake restoration work with dubious results.
Protecting these places which are the keepers of the European cultural identity means preserving not only the architectural and cultural heritage but also the urban morphology of space and the uses and values linked to it ­ in short, it means protecting that which makes a space a place and is identified as the intangible cultural heritage.
The aim of the paper is therefore to investigate on the risks historic places are subjected to with regard both to the tangible and intangible heritage. The ultimate goal is to highlight the dangers present in contemporary urban conservation policies which address the issue of mass tourism in historic centres with fragmented interventions torn off from any general or strategic conservation planning policy.
The analytical approach, proposed by the paper, is based on three interrelated surveys mapping changes and transformations in the case study area after a major urban re-qualification intervention realised by the municipality of Rome in 2000. The three surveys refer to the changes the area has undergone with respect to: functions; the state of conservation of the buildings; and the urban quality of places.

REFERENCES

Candela G ­ Figini P. (2003), Economia del turismo, Milano: McGraw-Hill.
Commission of the European Communities (2002), Environment 2010: Our Future, Our Choice, Brussels.
ICCROM (2005), Developing tourism and protecting cultural heritage: a challenge for the twenty- first century, Rome 5-6 sept.
ICOMOS (2005), Proceedings of ICOMOS: 15th general assembly and scientific symposium: monuments and sites in their setting, conserving cultural heritage in changing townscapes and landscapes, China, NanDajie: World Publishing Corporation.
Fossati A ­ Panella G (eds) (2000), Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press.
Gravari-Barbas M - Guichard-Anguis, S(eds) (2003), Regards croisés sur le patrimoine dans le monde à l'aube du XXIe siècle, Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne.
Morelli P (ed.) (2003), Beni culturali e turismo nelle città d'arte italiane, Milano: Franco Angeli.
Querini G (2000), La politica ambientale nella Unione Europea, Roma: Edizioni Kappa.
Rodwell D (2006), "Managing historic cities: the management plans for the Bath and Edinburgh heritage sites" in Journal of architectural conservation, Vol. 12, n. 2, July, p. 41-61.