Construction of the place usually lies upon the relationship between people and space, on the one hand, and on the other, upon the way societies use for appropriating territory, both practically and in terms of symbols. Place is life's frame and where social relationships become reality. At the same time ...
(Show more)Construction of the place usually lies upon the relationship between people and space, on the one hand, and on the other, upon the way societies use for appropriating territory, both practically and in terms of symbols. Place is life's frame and where social relationships become reality. At the same time it plays a role of mediator between diverse groups, institutions and individuals. Creating place is a collective activity, which is based on overlapping of geographical peculiarities, cultural acquisitions, historical developments, mixture of signs, i.e. all what makes it unique and becomes a part of its identity. This allows the place to participate as a unit in many networks created by following different criteria: cultural, social, historical or political ones, and this multiplies its many images.
We would like to address the question of place's construction in present days and the case of the Old Town Plovdiv in particular. What we are interested in is the process of construction of this particular place, which we call "Old Town" or "Ancient Plovdiv". Furthermore we would like also to follow the changes of the place's perception as well as to understand the meanings it has been loaded with. We think it is important to present the way it transforms into "high" (symbolic important) place, too, a notion that takes us beyond all the religious, monumental and connected to memory aspects and attaches to the place a multitude of values and practices, which enriches it and support the attitude to it as well as to the different social interconnections. This transformation becomes a reality by the process of patrimonialization that corresponds to attaching value and to using heritage and its incorporation into the cultural practices of the collective life. It is vitality of the cultural life in the city and in the district in particular that makes this place a "high" one, for Plovdiv and perhaps for Bulgaria in general.
By the way, Bulgarian state has showed some involvement in protection of the civic heritage (i.e. houses as opposed to the churches and palaces). During the communist period the interest in culture and heritage corresponded to the state's politics and that was one and the same for Plovdiv and for the other cities in Bulgaria. Use of the heritage and culture mirrored the ideological needs of past's interpretation and the necessity of controlling the collective memory in order to meet the requirements of constructing the national identity and/or of introducing the contemporary society to the idea of cultural diversity and interrelations.
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