The conservation and management of intangible cultural qualities as the fragments of the spirit of place: The case of the Istanbul land walls

Abstract

The definitions, approaches, and methods required for the inclusion of intangible cultural qualities in site management processes for conservation purposes are rarely published. Within the scope of this study, a method for the evaluation of intangible cultural qualities in site management processes is developed, and this method is applied to the Land Walls Component of the Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage Site.The aim of this study is to define the intangible qualities of a heritage site, to determine them according to written and visual sources, and to provide necessary means to enable the determination of intangible qualities' physical signifiers and their evaluation for conservation -focused site management. The main goal of this study is to develop a method to relate the tangible and the intangible heritage and to transform the knowledge created by this new method into an alternative site management approach. First, the intangible cultural qualities of the Land Walls are examined. Second, these qualities are integrated into the site management processes by relating the intangible qualities to the tangible ones, such as location and the traces on structures and cultural routes. Finally, these intangible cultural qualities are included in the site management processes by means of a Geographical Information Systems (GIST database and its analysis.Istanbul Land Walls World Heritage Site Component, which is taken as a case study, was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1985 as one of the four Historic Areas of Istanbul. This study is original in that it defines and documents the intangible cultural qualities and their inclusion in the site management methodology by relating them to the tangible qualities within the scope of the documentation, interpretation, and presentation of the heritage sites for conservation purposes.