Sacred Spaces

Yet Florence never gives one the feeling that it is a city out of control or that it requires to be cleaned up. You never stop dead in your tracks and wonder at the partial demolition of a beautiful, old building, or feel distressed at the way it is maintained or conserved. You enjoy the way you can walk on easy pavements and gawk and gaze.

Behind this beautiful city many invisible hands are at work. First of all, there are the Florentines with the pride they feel for their city, for without this pride and their participation in its health and beauty, Florence would not be what it is. The authorities combine many factors in the way they maintain the city. Municipal sensitivity and an awareness of history, aesthetics, cleanliness and common sense have all been integrated.

This is a living, breathing city and not a showpiece. Concessions have to be made to the movement of the city and the many people that inhabit it. But the important thing is that the city is viewed as a totality and not considered culturally important in bits and pieces, as we are tempted to do occasionally in our country. Tourism is very important for Florence, for in a way, it survives on it. Yet, the art, architecture and history of the city, the ambience, the very feel of Florence are not sacrificed for the sake of tourism. In our country, we have a tendency to make tourism more important than heritage and culture. The essential factors that attract tourists have to be properly protected before tourism is brought into play. Apart from protection, we have to be sensitive to the history and the aesthetics of that heritage.

San Gimignano, a tiny city atop a hill with a magnificent view of the Tuscan landscape, has hardly changed since medieval times. There is a desire in us all to be 8216;modern8217;, a desire to either raze the architecture of the past or alter it crudely in order to accommodate present requirements. It is remarkable how the citizens of San Gimignano have adapted their modern lifestyle to the city while retaining its medieval ambience and flavour. This is of course San Gimignano8217;s unique selling point, the reason it attracts so many tourists and the factor that motivated UNESCO to make it a Heritage City. In India, attempts are underway to make Mysore, a city studded with exquisite buildings and palaces, a heritage city.

Udaipur with its lakes and palaces is already one, and it well deserves to be. We should plan on these two cities and understand how larger and more complex cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad can be preserved as heritage cities. Besides this, let us learn and garner experience from Heritage Cities elsewhere in the world.