2014 Sustainibility in heritage protected areas
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Browsing 2014 Sustainibility in heritage protected areas by Issue Date
Now showing 1 - 20 of 30
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access The cost of urban heritage: discussion with Bertrand Jolit(AESOP, 2014) Alexis, Nasos; Verdelli, LauraThis article summarizes the thoughts that emerged during an interview with Mr. Bertrand Jolit on 8th February 2015) discussing the management of urban heritage as a form of private property and, by extension, the role it plays in the formation of a collective asset for the character of an area. As the abstract of an article by Einar Bowitz and Karin Ibenholt says: “Investments in cultural heritage are often claimed to be beneficial for a local economy, not only in terms of cultural consumption, but also in the form of increased employment and income” 2, the literature on this matter, even if the methods to calculate direct and indirect impacts are still very basic, is increasing. Heritage is considered as a socio-economic development factor, but the first sector that is addressed by heritage conservation projects is cultural tourism and visits, which often lead to a staged heritage. But what about ordinary, everyday life in added-value heritage buildings? How do ordinary people, owners of ‘old’ buildings, deal with costly restorations, constraining rules, and lack of skills (starting with their own, but going up to craftsmen)? How does the action of ‘ordinary’ people (as well owners and professionals) contribute to the general and overall conservation of the built up heritage (made up of both tangible and intangible components)? How does it keep heritage alive? How does it avoid having ‘only’ protected monuments that are preserved? If, following the more recent theories, we assume that there is no conservation without social conservation, what is the role individuals are playing in sustaining a complex, complete and general heritage environment?Item Open Access A design proposal for Place Anatole France(AESOP, 2014) Khawaja, HadeelDuring my studies in Polytech Tours for the Master Programme Planning and Sustainability, we were asked to deliver a conceptual design proposal of developing Place Anatole France- Tours. The project was supervised by Prof. Laura Verdelli under the unit of Heritage and Sustainable development. Each group - made up of four students - had worked on a different proposal, with altered approaches to analyse the project components. This article is devoted to briefly explaining how we understood the project and what is the suggested proposal for developing Place Anatole France. Our concept design proposal suggests: unifying the space and creating interactive nodes within the site boundary would add a new experience to Place Anatole France. The group members are: Abinaya Rajavelu (India), Manasvini Hariharan (India), Alice Frantz Schneider (Brazil) and myself Hadeel Khawaja (Jordan). The design proposal was divided into three main phases: –– Phase ‘A’ focused on understanding the project through thorough site analysis and divided into three divisions: 1) its urban fabric, 2) studying the previous proposals already made by the municipality/developers for the site area and 3) notes of the site users. –– Phase ‘B’ focused on coming up with observations influenced by the site analysis. –– Phase ‘C’ is the concept design proposal. Starting with Phase (A), the urban fabric had examined four components; the thoroughfares, the landscape and streetscape, the building types around the site, and the open public spaces.Item Open Access More tours in Tours(AESOP, 2014) Schroeder, Liesa; De Weger, Julie; Navarro, Fernando; Beg, MarijaTours is the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. For tourists it is a stop-off during their visit to the Loire Valley. For locals it is the place they live with varying levels of permanency. For students who study there, it is a place of temporary (yet often strong) affiliation. Each of these groups contributes to the city as a living formative influence and each of them uses the city in a different way. Therefore, the city is partly characterized by its users. Furthermore, Tours is a Roman city Caesarodunum; it is a pilgrimage route; it is a Medieval city; it is the birthplace of the Renaissance in France; it is the city for royal ceremonies with French axial symmetry; it is a bombarded city scarred by wars, especially the last one and finally, it is the city that has been rebuilt. Tours is all that, but also none of that. It is the city of today, yet still comprises all those layers that have been added down the centuries. Accordingly, the city is partly characterized by the contradictions of past and present. At last, Tours is a part of the Loire Valley UNESCO Heritage Site. This institutionalized protective measure should help some areas to deal with inevitable changes in the modern world, but there is a risk of preventing further development by preserving and monumentalizing the existing situation. Ironically, what we try to protect now, we wouldn’t have even had if we had preserved it in today’s way centuries ago!Item Open Access City Deep, River Wide: shifting axes changing perceptions of the upper rue Nationale(AESOP, 2014) Basic, Jasmina; Stroud, Alfie; Peralta Zaragoza, Anna; Sitarz, AnnaThe topic of the 5th European Urban Summer School – ‘Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Development’ – gave us our prompt for getting to know Tours. It told us that the city has valuable assets but that it should be adapted to the contemporary and future needs of its users. Indeed, there’s a lot going on in Tours. It has an evidently rich built heritage and, maybe even more valuable, the natural heritage of the river Loire. However, an over obsessive preservation of aspects of its heritage could risk Tours becoming a museum, which would not provide sustainable circumstances for a place for people live and work. This premise is why we came together in the city to talk about it. Our approach to researching this urban area was to explore potentials of the characteristics we found in it, and to show the richness of the whole area. We acquired a strong feeling from our growing acquaintance with the place that everything it needs already exists, but just needs to be reinterpreted to improve the urban life of its users. Tours does not want to become a museum but rather a sustainable urban entity. To that end, there’s no need necessarily to build something new, or to change everything that already exists. The research we summarise in this paper would like to illustrate that sometimes it is enough to change our perception and try to see things in a different way. In this way, they become new and can provoke alternative responses for guiding the processes of change. At the same time, it is the method that preserves our heritage.Item Open Access La Rentrée: bringing life back to the interface between city & river(AESOP, 2014) Alexis, Nasos; Hotakainen, Tiina; Singh, Gautam; Maas, SuzanneThe city of Tours, the principal town in the Loire valley, famous for its cultural and natural heritage, was the chosen venue for the 5th European Urban Summer School, focusing on the contradictions between heritage conservation and urban sustainability. In our group assignment we were asked to research a particular site in the city centre: the area comprising the upper part of the centre’s main artery, the Rue Nationale, the inner quarters to the west and east, and the adjacent Place Anatole France (see Figure 1), together forming the interface between the city, the river and its people. The study site has changed significantly over the past hundred years. In the 18th century, King Louis XV commissioned the creation of the Rue Nationale, forming a northsouth connection cutting through the city of Tours as part of the road from Paris to Spain.Item Open Access Supportive guidelines as a tool for the conception of Local Urban Plans(AESOP, 2014) Riauté, MélanieNowadays, building on unbuilt land and urbanization is a core issue. In France 600 km² of land are built on every year. In addition, the increase of built-up land is four times faster than population growth. This massive and probably unnecessary urbanization leads to a significant loss of agricultural and natural areas, which are essential to maintain. The urban environment is home to over more than half the world’s population, consumes about 75% of energy resources and generates 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. Urban areas, highly energy consuming, are increasing up every day, mainly at the expense of agricultural areas and contributes to the degradation of the ecological footprint. Moreover, the compactness that characterised the cities of the past has for many decades now been abandoned, as typified by the dormitory towns and tower blocks of the fifties. The city is, by definition, a place where you need to promote exchanges and interactions between residents in order to contribute to their further cultural and general development and progress. As urban planners, we have to ask ourselves the question: how can we build the sustainable city of tomorrow? What are the most effective urban forms to create an efficient city in terms of space and energy consumption, whilst respecting the lives, development, progress and culture of the people. This is a reality, the concern for sustainable development should not clash with architectural and landscape heritage. On the contrary, the principles of sustainable development must be carried out simultaneously with the redevelopment of the old neighbourhoods, which are often synonymous with urban environmental quality and liveability.Item Open Access Le haut de la rue Nationale à Tours - un projet urbain ambitieux porté par l’Agence d’Urbanisme(AESOP, 2014) Tanguay, CélineThe upper rue National in Tours: an ambitious urban project supported by L’Agence d’Urbanisme Place Anatole France at the top of the rue Nationale, has a symbolic and heritage value. It was between 1743 and 1751 that a bridge was built over the Loire, its route determined by the creation of the new road to Spain on a North-South axis. These great works established the two places on either side of the bridge, square Choiseul on the North and square Anatole France on the South. In 2000, the L’Agence d’Urbanisme de l’Agglomération de Tours (ATU) produced a first report on the future development of Anatole France in which accommodating the car in an underground carpark was a major feature. This was revised in 2002, when a broader and more balanced future vision for a change of use for this public space was set out. This involved setting out possible programmes and researching the relevant layout and forms of the Square. This required the amendment of the Conservation Area Plan and the redefinition of its scope so as to introduce the development of the whole old city centre into the plans. The ATU has developed several design concepts that have in common the demolition of the commercial existing areas (approximately 2,500 m2), the re-valuation of the Saint-Julien church and the opening of the School of Fine Arts. The projects also aimed to reduce the impact of the car, to reorganize part of the parking lots and to give back space to pedestrians and visitors. The studies for the new tramway line (after 2007) have corroborated these initial ideas. In 2010, the ATU published “The top of the rue Nationale” in two-volumes, “History of place” and “Destruction and reconstruction.” These documents helped to put the unique status of this urban space into a time perspective.Item Open Access Architecture with architects: urban proposals for three villages in the province of Tarragona, Spain(AESOP, 2014) Peralta Zaragoza, Annaland in Spain; by 2006 that had increased to 1.014.000 hectares, almost doubling urbanization in 20 years. Thousands of hectares of rural land have disappeared by applying a model of city-building with many shortcomings, such as priority for traffic above people, poorly used public space, mono-functional areas and low density. As a result there are sustainability problems (both environmental and economic), inefficient public transport, bad quality of the public realm and loss of ‘place identity’. This study focusses on the fact that there still exist a large amount of land with an approved urban plan with the same deficient characteristics. This article shows the conclusions of a study of some villages in the province of Tarragona by students and professors from La Salle architecture school in Barcelona, on alternative ways for planning our built up areas. The aim was to establish a balance between both the history and the culture of the settlement and between high environmental quality and functional issues. The research project has resulted in a new method of interpreting and projecting the settlement and its landscape, which could be more widely applied.Item Open Access The European Urban Summer School (EUSS) and the Young Planning Professionals Award (YPPA)(AESOP, 2014) Mironowicz, Izabela; Martin, DerekIn 2010, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched a new annual event: the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) for young planning practitioners and academics across Europe to promote an exchange of ideas and foster a debate on important contemporary planning issues amongst representatives of the new generation of planning professionals. Members of AESOP – European universities teaching planning – host the event and offer their teaching resources at the Summer Schools. Tutors do not get any fee for their work; the EUSS is not a commercial venture. It is meant as a platform of debate to be run on as low as possible fee for participants. On average some 20-30 young professionals attend the School. The first EUSS was held in September 2010 at the Wrocław University of Technology, Poland. The topic was Heritage and Sustainability. Izabela Mironowicz was head of school. The proceedings of EUSS 2010 have been published in “Urban Change. The Prospect of Transformation” edited by Izabela Mironowicz and Judth Ryser (ISBN978-83-7493-570-8) and sponsored by UN-Habitat. The book is also available for downloading in pdf format from the AESOP website www.aesop-planning.eu and is ready for comments on the AESOP Digital Platform ‘InPlanning’. For the second EUSS, hosted by Lusófona University in Lisbon, Portugal in September 2011, AESOP invited four of its international planning partner organisations to be involved in the Summer School: the European Council of Spatial Planners-Conseil Européen des Urbanistes (ECTP-CEU), the European Urban Research Association (EURA), the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) and the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP). Diogo Mateus was head of school and the topic was: Quality of Space – Quality of Life. Unfortunately a sponsor has not been found to enable a book of the proceedings to be published.Item Open Access Public Spaces with Cultural Value: the case of Heraklion(AESOP, 2014) Nasos, AlexisAs cities march on into the 21st century, they are faced with great challenges in all aspects of urban governance. Particularly during times of crisis, defining priorities becomes increasingly difficult as well as risky, and authorities are required to exceed their usual agendas in order to successfully address complex issues. In such a context, promoting the issue of the preservation of architectural and urban heritage might seem a triviality. But is it possible to legitimately argue in favour of disregarding the value of cultural components within a modern city? Martin Meade [1] points out the “instances where buildings, villages or whole towns have been destroyed deliberately, in order to deprive populations or ethnic groups of their sense of cultural identity” as evidence of the impact the built environment can have on the qualitative attributes of communities and thus, on whole nations. The case study, which is analysed in this paper, is an example of how undermining the relationship between the built environment and the historic and cultural consciousness of its inhabitants can lead large parts of the population to discard traditional values. The result is a switch towards adopting superficial practices and lifestyles, effectively creating problems that can even magnify the consequences of a financial crisis.Item Open Access The R+0! approach: between theory and practice(AESOP, 2014) Carabelli, RomeoUrban development is always related to social transformation. This can be seen in several examples through history, from the French “luxury polemic” of the 18th century, discussing where new real estate should be developed, through the Grossstadt discussion at the beginning of the 20th century about the relevance of the masses, up to the 1968 social protests, when the theory of Lefebvre about the “right to the city”, gave a new interest to the quality of everyday life (Secchi 2013:7). In the last of these, there is an implicit new role for ‘the ordinary citizen’, who became an important stakeholder in the development and regeneration of urban regions. During the seventies several attempts to strengthen the role of citizens in urban planning and design developments were attempted, notably the ones by Yona Friedman and Giancarlo de Carlo, but they did not reach a wide audience, and tended to be only limited, single experiences (Cimadomo, 2014a). They did, however, show the necessity to get the citizen’s opinion and get to know their needs, as a relevant social act in any design and urban transformation intervention, considering not the administration, but the citizens themselves as the real clients. The weight of the real estate and subprime lending components in the financial crisis at the beginning of this century had, and still has, a great impact on the lives of millions of people. In particular, cuts in welfare benefits have generated protests everywhere, giving a renewed importance to the role of citizens in policy-making. The 15M movement in Spain, or Occupy Wall Street in the United States, just to mention two, constitute a profound transformation and a point of no return in the way public policies are administered. Such movements have also had an effect on urban transformation, leading to a more bottom-up approach to, and the participation of, ordinary citizens in the planning process.Item Open Access Community participation for heritage conservation(AESOP, 2014) Cimadomo, GuidoUrban development is always related to social transformation. This can be seen in several examples through history, from the French “luxury polemic” of the 18th century, discussing where new real estate should be developed, through the Grossstadt discussion at the beginning of the 20th century about the relevance of the masses, up to the 1968 social protests, when the theory of Lefebvre about the “right to the city”, gave a new interest to the quality of everyday life (Secchi 2013:7). In the last of these, there is an implicit new role for ‘the ordinary citizen’, who became an important stakeholder in the development and regeneration of urban regions. During the seventies several attempts to strengthen the role of citizens in urban planning and design developments were attempted, notably the ones by Yona Friedman and Giancarlo de Carlo, but they did not reach a wide audience, and tended to be only limited, single experiences (Cimadomo, 2014a). They did, however, show the necessity to get the citizen’s opinion and get to know their needs, as a relevant social act in any design and urban transformation intervention, considering not the administration, but the citizens themselves as the real clients. The weight of the real estate and subprime lending components in the financial crisis at the beginning of this century had, and still has, a great impact on the lives of millions of people. In particular, cuts in welfare benefits have generated protests everywhere, giving a renewed importance to the role of citizens in policy-making. The 15M movement in Spain, or Occupy Wall Street in the United States, just to mention two, constitute a profound transformation and a point of no return in the way public policies are administered. Such movements have also had an effect on urban transformation, leading to a more bottom-up approach to, and the participation of, ordinary citizens in the planning process.Item Open Access Notes on the 5th EUSS and the proceedings : Preface(AESOP, 2014) Verdelli, LauraAs time seems to fly faster every day, human beings feel the necessity to preserve, develop and even showcase cultural heritage so as to conserve points of reference of our identities and evidence of our individualities. At the same time, this fast developing - and decaying - world imposes another necessity: to develop and preserve our social, economic and ecological environment, to achieve what is commonly called ‘sustainable development’. This means that in all our historic cities, heritage concerns and sustainable development are two essentials to take into account whilst conceiving any spatial development project, but they are not always obviously compatible. The essential and challenging difficulty to conciliate the two was the basic concept of the 5th European Urban Summer School (EUSS). This edition of the EUSS aimed to set a platform to discuss issues where heritage conservation and sustainable development can meet. Has heritage conservation to be strictly framed? Do we have to choose between places to admire and places to experience? What does the application of sustainable development pillars imply in spatial planning and especially in urban design? The EUSS, with a series of seminars and workshops, aimed to bring together young planners and academics so as to benefit from international creativity. The goal was to create a platform where each participant could experience combining theoretical approaches and operational urban design. At the basis of the EUSS programme was the intention of showing participants as many sides of a complex stakeholders’ environment as possible. That’s why the many lecturers invited to speak were firstly specialists of heritage conservation (so as to structure the framework, a-spatially) and secondly from all possible categories of users and decision-makers (specifically related to the project site): politicians, technicians, professionals, architects/planners, associations, shopkeepers, inhabitants, individuals etc.Item Open Access Patrimoine, développement durable et habitat au sein des secteurs sauvegardés (Heritage, Sustainable Development and Social Diversity: what is the place of housing and the inhabitant in urban preservation areas in France?)(AESOP, 2014) Armellini, DavidThis paper looks at the relationship between heritage protection and housing and social diversity in so-called Preservation Areas (‘les secteurs sauvegardes’) in historic centres in French cities. An important turning point in heritage protection in France was the ‘Malraux Act’ of 1962, establishing preservation areas in the historic centres in 104 cities and towns of different sizes, one of which, of course, is Tours. This Act and subsequent laws and decrees have had a major positive impact with regard to its main objective. It was essentially a planning law aimed at preserving historic city centres with the use of use of planning tools, such as the Plan Local d’Urbanisme (PLU), and financial incentives such as tax exemption and state and local subsidies. The result was that these areas improved radically from the general post-war image of unhealthy, shabby areas to architecturally and aesthetically pleasant and economically buoyant areas, with white-collar, middle-income professional classes well represented and successful cultural and commercial activities, especially from tourism: gentrification and ‘touristification’ with a good social diversity. However, gradually in the course of time, the stringent regulations for the physical preservation of these areas, often rather uncoordinated from different ministries and regional and local authorities, because of their complexity and expense, began to have more negative impacts.Item Open Access Culture de l’eau et projet de paysage: annotations pour une réflexion (Water Culture and Landscape Project: reflective notes)(AESOP, 2014) Ercolini, MicheleThe map of historical human settlements, with a few exceptions, corresponds to the one of the rivers and waterfronts of the world. At the origin of everything, always, and despite everything is: water. Rivers have shaped the landscape over the centuries. They have signified important means of communication and, at the same time, constraints. Natural fords have determined the direction of roads. Writers, painters and poets that have described and enjoyed the rivers, led them to be loved by revealing what can be seen of their forms. One of the cornerstones of the European Declaration for a ‘New Water Culture’, introduced and signed in Madrid in February 2005, refers to the ‘cultural values’ of water territories. Rivers are presented as a natural heritage that hosts territorial and collective identity values; they are referred to as the soul of many landscapes and of many human communities that lived near their banks for hundreds or thousands of years. The ecological and landscape functions generated by the rivers, as well as the cultural, social and functional values should be recognized and cherished. Renzo Franzin alerts us on the fact that: “We can identify today, particularly in the most water-rich countries, a gradual disappearance of the Culture of water, although it had produced along the centuries a knowledge rich in signs and crafts, all aware of the amazing and valuable aspect of this resource, that was run as a heritage to safeguard and develop in a wise utilitarian vision, limiting wastes and risks”Item Open Access Heritage Conservation, Sustainable Communities & Tourism Strategies: case studies from Taiwan(AESOP, 2014) Cexiang, FooWithin the current climate of macroeconomic uncertainty, social unrest and global environmental risks, nation states have worked furiously but often with little consensus on the sustainable development agenda. Instead of relying solely on nation states and politicians, this paper argues for resilient local communities to drive this agenda from the local level by developing sustainable local economies, strong social networks and environmentally friendly ways of life. This bottom-up approach will complement any top-down Government or inter-Governmental agenda, but cannot be replaced by the latter. We are guided by the American philosopher Lewis Mumford (1938) in our definition of resilient local communities: “We must create in every region people who will be accustomed, from school onwards, to humanist attitudes, cooperative methods, rational controls. These people will know in detail where they live: they will be united by a common feeling for their landscape, their literature and language, their local ways, and out of their own self-respect they will have a sympathetic understanding with other regions and different local peculiarities. They will be actively interested in the form and culture of their locality, which means their community and their own personalities.” This means that resilient local communities are made up of people steeped in the local heritage.Item Open Access The upper part of the rue Nationale and the place Anatole France: recent evolutions and future projects(AESOP, 2014) Lausin, Julie; Verdelli, LauraThis paper deals with recent developments in the production of the territory, starting from the example of the spatial planning project of the upper part of rue Nationale and the Anatole France Square. By the early 1980s, in a deeply changed social, cultural, economic and historical context, the French central government has encouraged the development of local and regional authorities, affecting at the same time the process of planning projects (and in particular of urban design) and what is expected from them. Starting from this statement, we can study the relationship between the changes in the context and the ways of fabrication of a ‘project territory’. The contemporary way of making a project seems to be based on at least five major components: the definition of the expectations of the project, its design, its realization, but also its appropriation by the recipients, and the consequent and inevitable changes due to this appropriation. The project becomes then less a result than a framework of action. The sharing of development issues, the proliferation of stakeholders, the cooperation and the coordination among actors, etc., acquire a capital place and become an outcome, as well as the space transformation in itself. This article aims to gain insight into this system by looking at an example of contemporary territorial construction that corresponds to the recent vision of the future of the urban area as promoted by the city of Tours and by the urban community Tour(s) Plus over 2013-2014, and more specifically by analysing the vision that unfolds through the territorial projects taking place around Anatole France Square: the Contemporary Creation Centre ‘Olivier Debré’ (at the place of the School of Fine Arts) and the project of the top part of rue Nationale. These projects are placed in a context of decentralization (and crisis), in a framework where a more or less effective participation in decision-making of all actors is constantly evoked (especially regarding the decisions that leave a visible mark in terms of presence in space and that are able to reinvent the image that the city conveys).Item Open Access Two main issues in the transformation of Anatole France Square, Tours(AESOP, 2014) Durdevic, Jan; Lamirault, ValentinA theatre of diverse and varied urban elements, this northern end of the rue Nationale offers potentially a rich range of visual experiences. There is variation in elevation, architectural style, street furniture, land-use density etc., a rich diversity. If these potentials could be exploited and developed, such a space could represent a substantial asset for the central urban perimeter. However, at the present time this contribution is lacking. The square has no common core where all its parts intersect. There is not even a minimal, recognizable uniqueness; it is not a cohesive, clearly defined and identifiable whole. This strategically important space is static, more a heavy conglomerate of separate parcels, without direct links between them. This promotes the emergence of barriers, both physical and symbolic, making movements in the square unnatural and uneasy. This singular conformity substantially promotes a negative perception of the area. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a coexistence between the different particularities of the square and provide a common identity cutting across them as the first major development priority. This approach means a profound change in the current arrangement; it is necessary to rethink the connections between the different parts of the area. The encouragement of alternative movements of people by a less balanced and symmetric organization of structural elements and urban furniture, with more parcels ‘irrigated’ by pedestrian movements, and less dominance of current ‘main lines’, is one of the main objectives to deal with this first issue. However, the desire to unify whilst preserving diversity in Anatole France Square is a question of fine balance and therefore carries with it a warning. Whilst it is necessary to improve the present homogeneity, an all too exotic or radical renovation would undermine the identity of this urban space. The proposed project must therefore be an optimization of the existing space, not a total upheaval.Item Open Access Integrative Urban Design Game: a method for sustainable regeneration of built cultural heritage(AESOP, 2014) Mrđenović, TatjanaUrban regeneration is challenged by the contradictory impact of globalization. This double- sided process can enrich local communities or leave them at the margins of global society. In the wake of globalization, most authorities claim that urban planning and design are in a paradigm crisis. This crisis is a forewarning for the need for a paradigm shift in contemporary theoretical and conceptual frameworks, the common elements of which are: ‘soft and hard infrastructure’, ‘agencies and structures’, ‘power to’, ‘new rationality’, ‘common sense’, ‘communicative action’ and ‘integrative development’. This research will examine the extended role of urban design to also become an integrating instrument in urban regeneration processes and provide a holistic development of the areas involved. Understood as a process of space creation, urban design with its different process dimensions, from subjective-expressive, multidisciplinary to socio-collaborative, can offer creative solutions in the regeneration process and globalization challenges using innovative methods like Integrative urban design.Item Open Access Approche historique de la Place Anatole France, un espace en contact permanent avec l’histoire A historical approach to the Anatole France Square: an urban space in permanent contact with history(AESOP, 2014) Durdevic, Jan; Lamirault, ValentinAnatole France Square is a public space in the oldest part of the city of Tours. Through the centuries it has undergone many changes, but its unique historical wealth and identity are inseparable from those of the city of Tours as a whole. The purpose of this short chapter is to briefly trace its history. During the Celtic era, the Tours region – called ‘Touraine’ - was occupied by the Gallic people of Turones, so Anatole France Square was probably an agricultural site with orchards. Tours was founded following the Roman annexation of Gaul in 52 BC. The area now covered by the Anatole France Square was not included in the first settlement, implanted in the present Saint-Gatien neighbourhood. In the medieval era, Tours, like many contemporary cities, was divided into two distinct urban centres: the Cité and the Châteauneuf. Even though the square did not belong to either of these neighbourhoods, an abbey dedicated to St. Julien was located on its perimeter and the successive enlargements of the abbey since 1240 are still partly visible. During the Hundred Years War, to defend Tours against the English, the ancient walls of the Cité and the Châteauneuf were replaced by a new wall which enveloped the area now known as Anatole France Square.