(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Owing to its geographical location and rich soil, Thrace in Modern Turkey have been hosting different civilizations and ethnic groups for many centuries. This potentiality of the region can be traced on cultural products built by the ethnic groups settled in Thrace that constitute the cultural heritage. Rums, one of the non-Muslim communities in Modern Turkey, have contributed to the social and cultural life in Thrace both via the construction of public spaces such as schools, monasteries, churches, businesses and via their civic life structured throughout villages with their specific/traditional architecture. However, unfortunately, the tangible heritage embodied by spaces that were built and once actively used by Rums have been gradually disappearing day by day. A significant number of Rums’ buildings can be found in the city of Adrianoupolis (Edirne) in Modern Turkey, which has become a key site of memory. By questioning how these structures constitute a symbolical bridge between the past and the present of the Rum community and how they serve as a collective memory both topographically and symbolically, this article argues the importance of preserving Turkey’s multicultural heritage. The paper emphasizes the necessity of an immediate preservation and conservation of the cultural and architectural heritage of the Rums’ in Adrianoupolis, which will also reveal the main settlements, characteristics, details of the risk assessment. Representing these structures in Adrianoupolis as sites of memory and world’s cultural inheritance, the research will also discuss future scenarios and seek answers for how to promote a sustainable conservation and to develop a creative reclamation of these structures.