ABSTRACT

Cities are a physical manifestation of the cultural, economic and political environment in which they developed. Very few cities were created in a single time period; so cities are like palimpsests—manuscripts through which earlier texts keep coming to the surface. It is this layering of cultural memories that gives to each of today’s cities its richness and unique character. This chapter argues that a fundamental principle of urban heritage management should be to respect the layers. This view is embedded in the notion of the Historic Urban Landscape. In some cities, however, efforts are being made to return the historic centres to some supposedly halcyon period in the past. Too commonly, this is based on a mythologized version of the past or sometimes represents a deliberate distortion of history. The motivation for such action is either ideological or commercial, or both. The inscription of a number of historic cities on the World Heritage list is being put at risk for the sake of tourism. In some cases, the beautification of historic districts is at the expense of local communities. Notions of ‘progress’ are brought into question: to what extent must traditional places and practices be sacrificed in order to achieve progress?