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FORTRESS STUDY GROUP
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Casemate 76 |
The conference was held in the medieval castle overlooking the river Narva. The medieval fortress on the other side of the river is the fortress of Ivangorod in Russia.
The conference was developed within the framework of the project Familiarization of Foreign Tourists with Narva's Fortifications, supported by the EC.
The programme of the conference was written in English, Estonian and Russian. The lectures were interpreted simultaneously in an excellent way.
'Many towns are beginning to advertise their historic fortresses as a tourist attraction. States have to take care of them, which demands a lot of financial resources that can be used on other societal needs. What is the particular place of the fortress in a modern town? How can those buildings be integrated into the urban landscape to save their historic authenticity, but at the same time to make them an organic part of the town? What might be the best functions of the historic fortresses and could those functions help to maintain fortresses without governmental support?'
Lecturers and subjects were:
Howard Dickenson: Working with walls: Chester; history, city development and tourism.
Olga Voloboj: The fortress of Ivangorod. Plan for its restoration and usage as a cultural and touristic centre: Options; leave it untouched (unacceptable for the authorities restore it as a military object; restore it into a big exhibit; a complete restoration.
Ruta Irena Klimaviciene: The Medieval Town Defence Wall of Vilnius: The medieval wall surrounding the old town of Vilnius (World Heritage List of UNESCO) and the preparation of the Medieval Town Defence Wall Heritage Protection Programme.
Ivar Wenster: National monuments in local development: The Karlskrona naval base. 'Society wins if fortifications could be used for alternative purposes. The original military infrastructure of the objects should be preserved as much as possible in order while serving the objectives of society.'
Jose Luis Munoz Encinar: The town as a touristical product (Spain): 'A historical heritage of a town should be viewed as a solid product […] this can be a good method to raise money the visitors pay to be used for the development of the local heritage."
Stjepan Loncaric: The Fortress in the Town Slavonski Brod. Ten Years of Civil Managing, Experiences, Costs, Plans: '... the broad space and premises of the fortress are envisioned as a spacious object, widely incorporated into the public life of Slavonski Brod and completely open to its residents: schools, sports, activities, fairs and, of course, for multi-purpose municipal administration. The extensive plan is aimed to bring vigour and inspiration into the fortress - the civil life.'
Einars Meiris: Military Tourism in Liepaia Fortress (Latvia): 'KGB Mission: to save the heritage value and at the same time ensure the Naval Port becomes a famous and interesting touristical object by attracting more tourists to Liepaia. KGB's future plans for the fortress are museums, expositions in underground galleries, exploring historical documents at Liepaia fortress, reconstructing the fortress's visual outlook and changing the fortress museum into Liepaia's military history guide.'
Anne Veevo: The development of Narva Bastions Today and Tomorrow: On the report providing an overview of Narva tourism development. 'The mission of the town is to develop a recognised place for tourists at the EU's eastern border on the basis of its original historico-architectural heritage and location as a border town.'
Sylwia Bryla: The new science centre in an old Russian fortress - benefits of the Hewelianum Programme: '…to create a place to discover the secrets of science and nature via the C19th Prussian fortification. Through this program Fort Grodzisko (Gdansk) will in the near future become a place where two subjects - history and science - will overlap seamlessly, with the monuments restored to their authentic form. Green areas of the post-fortress park will also return to their former glory.'
Jos Cuijpers: Description of Project Valkenburg (a town in the south of The Netherlands); 'The municipality has decided to improve the cultural and historical radius of the town in order to attract new groups of tourists and thus redevelop economical tourism in Valkenburg. The improvement of the economic value of the old fortress and the importance of the preservation and the development of cultural historical remains are emphasised.'
Carlos G Scheltema: Naarden, a well preserved fortified town in the neighbourhood of Amsterdam. The C17th fortifications surrounding the small town of Naarden are intact. They are kept in excellent condition by the government of The Netherlands, but the speaker concluded that tourist documentation in Narva is far better than at Naarden, which has an excellent but undersold product and should improve the way it attracts tourists.
Last minute additions to the programme were:
Peter van Roosmalen: Restoration projects at the Fortress of 's Hertogenbosch,
and Dr Athanassios Migos: The Fortifications of the Town of Rhodes
Conclusions:
The attraction of historic fortifications is booming business all over Europe.
The IFC should maintain personal contacts between its members, keep on exchanging knowledge and improve the fame and reputation of the IFC. We must take advantage of every opportunity to do so.
(The FSG is a member of the IFC. It is appropriate that Carlos spoke at this Conference and reports on it, as a member not only of the IFC and FSG, but also of Stichting Menno van Coehoorn, one of the earliest, if not the earliest, group to take up the cudgels on behalf of obsolete fortifications, formed in 1932 to resist proposals to demolish the fortifications of Naarden, one of the finest fortified towns in existence. Carlos lives in Naarden. Last year he reported on a similar conference in Magdeburg (Casemate 75 p9; see also p40 of this issue) and it is very encouraging for the future of such massive works that such positive interest is being shown in their potential. Ed).
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