IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

This paper looks at what is remembered, and what is not, when it comes to the Ottoman-era heritage of the Peloponnese, focusing specifically on its fortresses. Today, many of these sites are presented as timeless landmarks within national heritage narratives, yet their Ottoman histories, their reuse, repair, and reinvention under imperial rule are strikingly absent from public interpretation. While only a few of these fortresses were originally built by the Ottomans, most were actively maintained, adapted, and fortified throughout their rule, with substantial investment in both labor and materials. The Peloponnese holds particular symbolic weight in Greek national history. It was here that the War of Independence gained momentum and where Ottoman power was first decisively broken. Unsurprisingly, the fortresses, once central Ottoman military hubs, became key battlegrounds and symbols of that transformation. Many housed entire complexes: barracks, mosques, structures that supported military needs and sustained broader socio-economic life. And yet, in the heritage narratives presented today, these Ottoman layers are rarely acknowledged, let alone explored. Drawing on archival records, architectural evidence, and heritage policy, this paper examines how these fortresses have been folded into a national story that favors Classical, Byzantine and Venetian legacies while quietly excluding the Ottoman chapter. It argues that this selective remembrance is not something specific to Greece but part of a larger politics of heritage in post-imperial contexts. Without restricting the question of the Ottoman past merely into nation-state discourses, this paper seeks the ways for inclusiveness for future heritage policies and practices. What is at stake is not only the visibility or invisibility of a particular past, but the broader question of how we choose to inhabit and narrate our built environments as contested legacies of unwanted past as well.