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Ciutat de Mallorca
Towering heritage over the margins - A case study of Ciutat de Mallorca
Jaume Franquesa i Bartolomé and Marc Andreu Morell i Tipper,
Universitat de les Illes Balears
jaume.franquesa@uib.es & marc.morell@uib.es

Abstract:
The historic centre of Ciutat de Mallorca is nowadays a protected heritage area although there are clear differences between its monumental core and the margins this monumental core puts into shade. These margins are different - either the inner margins (interstices) of the monumental core or the external ones (borders). The second type of margins is viewed as marginalized and therefore they are object of the action of specific tools designed from 'above' to order and clean what is perceived as polluting. Neighbourhood associations and heritage protection organisations that respectively seek the implementation of social values and the revitalisation of heritage in the historic neighbourhoods of Ciutat de Mallorca answer these urban reform tools by pointing out that these actions, either on borders or on interstices, are more of a lucrative business than social assistance.

The main tools used for redeveloping and heritagising the marginal borders are the PERIs (special urban planning schemes for inner reform), which entail a comprehensive series of actions towards social assistance, heritage protection, persecution of crime, appreciation of housing, etc. The most recently proposed PERI in Ciutat within the ramparts has been that of El Temple, on the eastern margins. It is the first time that a block of buildings (in this case with five squares in its surroundings where each Saturday the flee-market takes place) has a PERI of its own. This is so because the block of buildings is sandwiched between two previous PERIs (those of Sa Calatrava and Sa Gerreria) and was therefore still considered 'wild land' to be heritagised. The block comprises religious buildings; premises of public institutions; a few small businesses and some inhabited historic and 'non-historic' buildings.

The most emblematic site is the towers of El Temple, one of the oldest buildings in Ciutat dating back to the 12th Century when it was known as Bab [Gate] Al-Gumara in the Islamic period and still inhabited. But heritage is not merely about history. It is also about the market, as the case of the towers of El Temple illustrate. Owning history is a whole business and in the case of historic buildings it combines monuments and everyday life and it establishes specific relations between the economic and social values of heritage. These relations are often conflictive and as in the case of El Temple they derive into the public domain and are portrayed as a classical model of conflict in Ciutat between the 'above' and the 'below'.

Selling a piece of history for it to be dwelt usually entails a combination of legal business strategies that allow the promotion of heritage, contacts with the 'above' that may pave the way to success and premeditated dirty tricks for achieving lucrative purposes. As the case of the towers of El Temple shows, heritage related to housing is prone to speculation processes that trigger social gentrification of the inhabited areas of the historic centre of Ciutat, a gentrification based on misleading concepts of cosmopolitanism and heritage. A perfect example of this are the cases taken to court by the only inhabitant of the towers of El Temple and the small newsagents to be found in its basement. The struggle of these neighbours against the owner that tried to evict them are a clear example of how silent or even silenced voices may find their way to the public domain.

Moreover, the actions of these actors from 'below' cannot be understood without the existing social networks in Ciutat. Their allegiances with ARCA (an association for the revitalisation of heritage) and two neighbourhood associations belonging to the same federation (Canamunt -also embracing the area of Sa Gerreria- and Sa Calatrava) prove the need of alliances (matrimony) for the successful revitalisation of heritage (patrimony). Such a process denies the perceived cut between tangible and intangible heritages and reinforces a holistic view for the heritage to pass on to future generations. It is thanks to the inheritance of the know-how for resistance of these social networks and organisations that the 'below' finds a way through the heritage discourse and its political use.

The neighbourhood associations are using words they never did before and understand heritage as somewhat larger than lists of catalogued items that have merely contributed to the heritagisation of everyday life while leaving in oblivion the existing relation between the whatever content of heritage (be it social or economic) and its context (not space but people). An oblivion stage not only achieved thanks to social amnesia but also achieved thanks to processes of de-memorisation that come from the 'above' and act on the most precious thing the neighbourhood associations seek: the survival of social networks. Indeed, the mirages for redevelopment mirror a lack of sensitiveness towards what is to be found in everyday life.

Format: Academic paper presentation (it may be accompanied with pictures).

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