Shaping Community Heritage Synergies Between Roman Barcelona Spaces and the Gothic Neighborhood

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to assess the potential for integrating the care provided by local communities in preventive urban archaeological heritage conservation plans. This potential stems from the local communities’ perception of their past, from their sense of belonging to the place where they live, and from their willingness of transmitting it; such potential has the effect of enhancing the survival of those sites. For this purpose, I will examine a particular case study, in the Gothic Neighborhood of Barcelona, where a dramatic increase of tourism in the last decade has had a negative impact in its inhabitants’ relation with the urban environment. In this article, I argue that, based on strategies aimed at developing risk management plans, we can enable inhabitant’s values and needs which can be used as a tool to reward society as a whole. I will propose a novel approach to the way we value our public heritage and propose new ways of developing community archaeology attached to conservation, a place where synergies can grow and flourish.