Mobilising memoryscapes: tourist entanglements at two Catalan Civil War sites

ABSTRACT

This paper’s ambition is to explore how the material, social and symbolic legacy of conflicts that have taken place since the turn of the twentieth century may be made more resonant and comprehensible to visitors. We take the Spanish Civil War sites in Catalonia as emblematic of the issues and entrenchments which to date hinder their full potential as sites of reconciliation, awareness and identity-shaping for Europeans. After analysing their current situation and embedding in place strategies, which is remarkably different – one in a peripheral mountain location and one in the very core of Barcelona’s touristscape –, our research examines the way in which historical memory is constructed, narrated and practiced in those spaces, underlining unsolved issues and contradictions. In retrospect, this research contributes to the critique of the very concept of historical memory, its patrimonialisation and the modes of social construction of heritage in the ‘age of mobilities’.

KEYWORDS:

• Historical memory
• Spanish Civil War
• Catalonia
• heritage
• landscape
• tourism

Acknowledgements

We are also grateful to Prof. Joan Josep Pujadas Muñoz for inestimable support and help received during the research project and the drafting of the paper. Despite the equally shared responsibility for this article, Antonio Paolo Russo wrote sections 1, 4 and 6, and Sara Bertelle sections 2, 3 and 5.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Antonio Paolo Russo is tenured assistant professor with the Faculty of Tourism and Geography, University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona. Dr. Russo is author of more than 50 publications in academic journals and books on research topics that range from tourism studies to cultural and urban economics. He has been involved as member of research groups and as an independent advisor in various research projects with local and regional governments, and international institutions such as the EU, the Council of Europe, the BID and UNESCO.

Sara Bertelle obtained her MA in Anthropology at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, focusing on landscape anthropology. In 2016–2017 she has been visiting associate researcher with the research group in Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies at University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona.

ORCID

Antonio Paolo Russo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8768-246X

Additional information

Funding

These authors acknowledge that the research on which the paper is based is funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain (POLITUR project ref. CSO2017-82156-R and AEI/ERDF-EU) and by the Department of Research and Universities of the Catalan Government (2017SGR22).