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Sandra PannellAt Suomenlinna the erasure of this less picturesque history is materially achieved by therestoration of the fortress complex itself. Ongoing restoration work at the fortress isundertaken to satisfy the authenticity and integrity requirements of the World HeritageConvention. As stated in the Convention’s operational guidelines, the “physical fabric” ofproperties nominated under the ‘cultural’ criteria (i) to (vi), “should be in good condition, andthe impact of deterioration processes controlled” (UNESCO 2005: 22). At Suomenlinnarestoring the fortifications in keeping with their current status as “monument, a culturalcentre, a borough and a tourist attraction” (The Estate of Olof af Hällstrom 2004: 49) haseffectively obliterated the material scars of more than three hundred years of warfare. In thisrespect, the Military Fortress of Suomenlinna is not alone. As Uzzell and Ballantyne pointout, there are “many museums around the world where the sartorial elegance of the soldieryand the impressiveness of the instruments of war assumes as much if not more significancethat their purpose and effect” (1998: 156-157). In these contexts, like Suomenlinna, war isreduced to a simple story about the application of military technology and industrialdevelopments to the slaughter of thousands, if not millions, of people. As Uzzell andBallantyne conclude, “as we go back in time we seem to be more willing to ignore sufferingand treat events in a more disinterested way as if they come from a ‘foreign country’” (1998:157). In part, this social ‘forgetting’ of temporally distant and shameful events is driven bythe transformation of sites associated with war and conflict from memorials and places ofremembrance to tourist attractions and day-trip destinations. However, battlefields,massacres sites, and the ground zero of mass destruction events, in which unspeakableatrocities, horror and tragedy are constitutive elements, do not readily provide visitors with an“entertaining day out for all the family” (Uzzell and Ballantyne 1998: 165). While ‘darktourism’ is identified as a “growing phenomenon in the late twentieth and early twenty-firstcenturies” (Lennon and Foley 2000: 3), it is apparent that heritage interpretation at these‘fatal attractions’ often presents “a sanitised form of truth which will not upset, offend orchallenge” (Uzzell and Ballantyne 1998: 165). This last point is particularly evident in theway that history is interpreted and presented at the Military Fortress of Suomenlinna.For all the talk of military engagements, there is little sense of the Suomenlinna site as acontested cultural domain in a presentation that largely celebrates Swedish and Russianmilitary history. Indeed, what is interesting about Suomenlinna is the way in which themilitary achievements of Sweden and Russia, and their varied historical occupation of theregion, have not been downplayed or rewritten to opportunistically serve the ends ofcontemporary Finnish nationalism. Perhaps, this says something about the uncertain andunfinished nature of Finnish nationalism or about the error of assuming the existence of anethnically independent and historically de-contextualised Finnish identity. Unlike the WorldHeritage site of Stonehenge, where there is no doubt about the fact that “it belongs to thenation and falls under the guardianship of English Heritage” (van der Aa et al. 2005: 18),Suomenlinna, while nominated by the Government of Finland, strongly points to its ‘sharedheritage’. And while the World Heritage site of the Tower of London monumentalises therock-solid stability of England’s constitutional monarchy, Suomenlinna points to the ebb andflow of power and illustrates the rise and fall of powerful empires and long-reigning kingdomsin this part of Europe.The identity of Suomenlinna as a pivotal focal point in the histories of at least three Europeannations raises some interesting questions about whose heritage it is, who should protect it,and if it is a ‘shared heritage’, to what extent does the Convention recognise multilateralnominations. As to the question of whose heritage it is and who should protect it, the WorldHeritage listed site of the Statue of Liberty and the associated immigration museum on EllisIsland provide us with some insights and possible answers. This site certainly representsone of the more iconic World Heritage properties to symbolise a multicultural heritage andtransnational citizenship. As a site associated with the entry of an estimated twelve millionmigrants into the United States of America, the Statue of Liberty site challenges the moresedentary and stable readings of history associated with so many of the cultural heritage50
Reconciling Nature and Culture in a Global Context?Lessons from the World Heritage Listproperties on the List. As Joanne Maddern points out, “migration histories necessarilyemphasise geographical connectivity and rhizomatic networks that transgress the borders ofindividual nation-states” (2005: 25). Symbolic of a period in global history, and linked tointernationally diverse memories, the Statue of Liberty is truly a World Heritage site.However, as Maddern reports, there is a constant tension in the way that the history of thesite is mobilised in support of American nationalism or used to promote a more polysemicand universalistic reading. Mindful of these tensions and the new social history, whichhighlights ‘spatial interconnections’, Maddern advocates, “World Heritage Sites must becomespaces of inter-cultural dialogue […] and should aim to promote themselves as transnationalrather than national spaces of citizenship” (2005: 32).Following on from Maddern’s comment, and returning to the subject of the nominationprocess, the Convention allows for, and has already accommodated, a handful of multilateralnominations for transnational properties, including the Wadden Sea Conservation Area (vander Aa et al. 2005), the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ (2005), and ‘The Belfries of Belgiumand France’ (2005). As the 2005 listing dates for these properties allude to, thesenominations reflect a recent trend towards a more thematic and integrated approach tonatural and cultural World Heritage. As Fowler suggests, the concept of ‘cultural landscape’,acknowledged in the operational guidelines for the World Heritage Convention since 1992,allows for the expression of theme-based cultural heritage, rather than just the monumentbasedexamples that dominate the World Heritage List (2003: 57). In this respect, linkingSuomenlinna to the already listed (1990) Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg, the WorldHeritage Naval Port of Karlskrona in Sweden (listed in 1998), and the Historic Centres ofStralsund and Wismar in Germany (listed in 2002), as part of a broader geo-political ‘militarycultural landscape’ (see Fowler 2003: 58), would make far greater thematic sense. Judgingby the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List to date, it appears that ‘historiccentres’ have traditionally occupied some of the broader thematic spaces suggested byFowler.THE HISTORIC CENTRE OF MACAU 53The World Heritage List features a number of sites inscribed as ‘historic centres’, ‘districts’,‘zones’, and ‘quarters’. These include the historic centres of Quebec (1985), Mexico City(1987), Brugge (2000), Vienna (2001) and Valparaíso (2003). Of the 628 cultural propertiescurrently inscribed on the World Heritage List, 56 of these are identified as some form of‘historic centre’. With seven listed historic centres each, Italy and Mexico have the highestnumber of such sites out of all the member parties to the Convention. Distributed throughoutthe ‘old’ and ‘new world’, as the term suggests, these centres largely comprise all thatremains of ancient, medieval, Moorish, renaissance, or colonial settlements, now enclosedby a more recent and modern built environment. While perhaps not as comprehensive asthe many listed ‘historic villages, towns and cities’, historic centres have greater thematicintegrity than those sites identified as ‘historic monuments’ within existing built enclaves.Listed in 2005, Macau is one of the latest additions in the acknowledgement of historiccentres as World Heritage sites. This tradition dates back to 1980, with the listing of theHistoric Centre of Rome. Macau is not only the most recent historic centre listed, but it alsorepresents the first nomination of this kind from the People’s Republic of China.Situated on the south-east coast of China, sixty kilometres from Hong Kong, for many of thefifteen million visitors to the area, the Macau Peninsula is a brief break and ferry ride away53 As if to emphasise its colonial past, the World Heritage Centre has retained the original spelling ofthe name of this former Portuguese outpost “Macao”, rather than adopt the name used by thepresent-day Macau Government.51
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