Presenting the Hammam al-Pasha: Conserving Heritage by ...

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Akko as a potential tourist attraction occurred during the British Mandate period, when a memorandum by the Reconstruction Commissioner to Government in July 1943 discussed Akko's tourism potential as: Acre is a place deserving of special treatment as probably the most beautifully situated town in Palestine and as one of its finest architectural and archaeological monuments. If, as I hope it will do, Government takes energetic steps after the War, to encourage tourist traffic with a view to stimulating visible exports, Acre should gain a new importance as an outstanding attraction for tourists. [Winter 1944:2] In the late 1940s tourism to Akko was severely limited as it was considered 'off the map', an ironic designation given Akko's easy accessibility to main transportation routes. The variety and wealth of its archaeological and historical sites were not enough to override the perception of Akko as simply being a "beautiful panorama and natural setting" (Winter 1944:99). It was this perception of Akko that led Winter to promote the commodification of Akko's "own 'native' life," which was filled with "busy suqs; the oddities of the unexpected; life lived in the streets; the picturesque 'camera views' found in nooks and corners; the vaulted ways; the piling up of the charmingly unconventional disorder of domestic architecture" (Winter 1944:99); it is these elements that were considered to have the ability to captivate visitors. Furthermore, the promotion of tourism to the Old City of Akko represents a major catalyst for the development of a conservation strategy throughout the Old City: Care however must be taken at every turn to ensure that all this which gives it its particular character shall continue. Changes, alterations, or improvements to the town and its buildings which will become inevitable, since a town cannot be artificially sterilized and at the same time breathe a natural corporate life, should to this end be most thoughtfully conceived and executed. [Winter 1944:100] The current management and planning of tourism in Akko reflects the conservation ethic proposed by the Winter Report (1944); tourism managers and planners aim to present Akko's 5
monuments and sites to the general public without compromising the town's "special character" (UNESCO 2001:45). A visit to Akko generally involves the consumption of an entire 'Akko experience', with many visitors purchasing an 'Akko package' that includes entrance into Akko's major sites: the Citadel, the Templars' Tunnel, the Hammam al-Pasha, the Ethnographic Museum, and the Okashi Museum. The degree to which these sites are spread throughout Old Akko enables tourists to wander (through designated tourist paths) the Old City, passing by the al-Jazzar Mosque, the Suq, and the Khans. What is distinct about the major attractions promoted in Akko's Old City is the extent to which the city's sites depict Akko as historic, a static (dead) city frozen in the past; only the al-Jazzar Mosque, the Suq, and a few of the Khans are being actively used and changed by the local community. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the Hammam al-Pasha (the Turkish Bathhouse), one of the most heavily advertised—and one of the most heavily visited 1 — tourist attractions in the Old City of Akko. The Hammam al-Pasha is presently managed by the Old Acre Development Company, who oversees its current exhibition: "The Story of the Last Bath Attendant," an audio-visual experience of the Turkish bathhouse in the Ottoman period. Given the cultural significance of the Hammam al-Pasha as a functioning bathhouse until the late 1940s, this research not only seeks to explore the extent to which the site being conserved by the Hammam al-Pasha tourist attraction represents an 'authentic' Turkish bathhouse, but also what the site is actually conserving and for whom. In other words, this research serves as a case study for examining the implications of tourism as a conservation strategy as well as the degree to which tourism can serve as a viable, culturally sensitive conservation tool. 1 In 2010 the Hammam al-Pasha received 46,000 visitors (General Secretary of OADC, 20 June 2011). 6
Page 1 and 2: Presenting the Hammam al-Pasha: Con
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents - Introduction…
Page 5: changed dramatically after May 1948
Page 9 and 10: contexts in which they visited Akko
Page 11 and 12: Chapter One Documenting a Tourist E
Page 13 and 14: In 1954 the building of the Hammam
Page 15 and 16: most expensive attraction in Old Ak
Page 17 and 18: walls of the courtyard. Before the
Page 19 and 20: After the first film ends a second
Page 21 and 22: Photo 10: Hot Room of the Hammam al
Page 23 and 24: analyzed as a sign within which a r
Page 25 and 26: each corner. The bathhouse building
Page 27 and 28: magnificent bathhouse of the land,
Page 29 and 30: experiences of the actual bath atte
Page 31 and 32: Scholars, and even tourists, often
Page 33 and 34: our cultural understanding of authe
Page 35 and 36: ‗inauthenticity‘ or ‗spurious
Page 37 and 38: hammam" in Old Akko for the already
Page 39 and 40: ideas about the development of tour
Page 41 and 42: Lemaire, Raymond and Herb Stovel 19
Page 43 and 44: from the roof domes, sending a filt

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