BGTR

this page is listed in Manchester University.

CONTACT David M. Bruce, Academic Adviser to WTFC

What's New

Earlier News (pre-March 2005)

Waterford Symposium

Academic Chapter

Selected  Publications

Trencin

Verona
Waterford
(many more towns are referred to in the publications listed)

 

For further links to various websites relating to walled towns the WTFC's own links page can be referred to:

Walled Towns Research

 

This is the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyph for town - a protected cross roads

The RESEARCH PAGES for the Walled Towns Friendship Circle.

Latest update:25-November-2006

The symbol below is a representation of a gate in the town walls of Tenby, Wales and is a hyperlink. to the Walled Towns Friendship Circle

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GEsource Search GEsource resources

This page is maintained and developed by David M. Bruce (DMB) of Bristol Business School, University of West of England, Bristol and Academic Advisor for WTFC and the Interreg IIIc 'ARCHWAY' project

What's New: 

August 2006 - January 2007 David Bruce has been awarded a research sabbatical Fellowship by University of West of England, Bristol to study the integration of tourism into the strategic management of historic (walled) towns. Outputs from the fellowship are listed below.

May 2006, International Journal of Heritage Studies has published an article "Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns David Bruce and Oliver Creighton (of Exeter University)  in Vol 12 No 3  2006. Copyright considerations means the full text of this article as published and illustrated isonly available through the Journal but See draft abstract. This article has helped underpin the work of the ARCHWAY project

March, April, October, November 2006 and April, June, October and December  2005have seen ARCHWAY workshops  successfully held in 's-Hertogenbosch, Valetta, Vittoria-Gasteiz (Arabarri), Piran and Lucca.. Details are on the WTFC ARCHWAY pages. The first workshop on 'Conservation' was chaired by DMB. The topic was 'Conservation, Regeneration and Enhancement of Walled and Historic Towns'.

November and January 2006 UWE, Bristol students with DMB visited Piran to study its tourism. Staying within the old town, we were once again for the nineth year made most welcome by the people and municipality of Piran. 

April 2005: at a conference on regional tourism opportunities, held in Kaliningrad (the 'exclave' of the Russian Federation on the Baltic coast), DMB contributed a paper on "Opportunities for the development of fortification tourism: experience of European walled towns” . The presentation as delivered by Dr Helena Kropinova is available here: It includes a script version of the draft paper (1.37Mb). You may also find a Russian language version of the abstract (translated by James Bruce). The paper has now been published in Russian and English by Immanuel Kant State University of Russia, Kaliningrad Dec 2005

22nd Dec 2004: The 'ARCHWAY' project approved for INTERREG III C funding from the European Commission; Led by Chester City Council for the Walled Towns, UWE Bristol will be the academic advisory partner and five towns have begun hosting workshops and producing good practice guides:

  • 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) focusing on 'Conservation'

  • Valetta (Malta) focusing on 'Transport',

  • the 'Arabarri' Consortium (Spain) focusing on 'Spatial Development',

  • Piran focusing on 'Tourism',

  • Lucca (Italy) focusing on 'Creative Cultural Heritage Development'

Chester is co-ordinating the project and mounting the final plenary conference on 27th/28th June 2007.

Verona (Italy), Pécs (Hungary) and Lörrach (Germany) are supporting partners

 

Some detail is available on the  'Arabarri' town consortium (Spain)' and on Piran (Slovenia): further detail on all these partner towns is available on the project website itself.

 

Earlier News: 

March 2005 UWE Bristol students with DMB and Jeff Hurran visited Tenby to study its tourism. Staying at the Fourcroft Hotel, we were made most welcome by Peter Osborne,MBE. The attached gives an idea of the town.

February 2005 Oxford University Department of Continuing Education'  weekend seminar 'City Walls and  City Identities AD 900-1650' WTFC featured in the final presentation (by DMB): Living Walled Towns: perception and heritage'( Presentation). Other presentations covered mainly UK and Ireland medieval town  walls. At the Seminar Bob Higham and Oliver Creighton of Exeter University launched their book 'Medieval Town Walls: an Archaeology and Social History of Urban Defence'.

Sept 2004:  The first partners' meeting for 'Archway' took place at the Chichester Walled Towns Friendship Circle Symposium on September 13th.     

At the symposium a forthcoming book (February 2005) on Town Walls was announced:  by Bob Higham and Oliver Creighton of Exeter University it will be called 'Medieval Town Walls: an Archaeology and Social History of Urban Defence'

26th Aug 2004:  The 'ARCHWAY' project has been accepted (subject to conditions) for InterregIIIc funding from the European Commission; it includes provision for developing the Academic Chapter (see below) and further research activities on walled towns. Led by Chester City Council for the Walled Towns, UWE Bristol will be the academic advisory partner and five towns will host workshops - Valletta (Malta), 's-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), the 'Arabarri' town consortium (Spain), Piran (Slovenia) and Lucca (Italy).

26th Aug 2004: Please find newly published Research Note by Prof. Stanko Geic of University of Split (edited by DMB): The walled historic town of Trogir:  the significance of tourism for this part of the World's Heritage in Croatia. and newly published, Soave 2002 Symposium Presentation  on mid Dalmatian Historic Towns also by Prof. Stanko Geic of University of Split.

May 2004 Please find draft case study : Piran: establishing a sustainable 'gem city' (DMB).  This case study has been published in a textbook Marketing for Tourism by J.C. Holloway (May 2004, Pearsons pp445-454) 

THE 13th INTERNATIONAL WALLED TOWNS SYMPOSIUM IN WATERFORD has generated a number of valuable papers and presentations. "What does your town sound like" by DM Bruce is available here. A silent web version is also available (for downloading at slower speeds ) of  "What does your town sound like" . Please be aware that a number of the pictures take a long time to load and that you can return to this page from every slide by clicking on the walled town hieroglyph in the bottom right corner of each slide. The Arabarri Consortium of Spanish towns in the Basque Country also made a detailed and effective presentation, which may be accessed here

 

"Academic Chapter"

At Waterford there was also agreement in principle to establishing an "Academic Chapter" under the auspices of the Friendship Circle. Details will be made available through this webpage in due course and in the meantime interested academics at Universities, other institutions of higher education and public museums and libraries that conduct research should contact me by email

Outputs from DMB's UWE Fellowship to date:

Conference Papers:

Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, London Aug 2006 "Relative Green House Emissions for different tourisms: how measurably eco-friendly is ecotourism?" -abstract; presentation

Walled Towns Friendship Circle 17th Annual Symposium Verona Sept 2006 "European town walls and walled towns: their creation, crises and decay; conservation issues for walled towns, revaluing and consuming walled towns as citizens and visitors” .presentation as Chair of Session and guidelines for new member towns

ATLAS International Tourism Conference Lodz, Poland Sept 2006 The 'Enabling' Heritage City: a Socially Inclusive Strategy for Surmounting Barriers Abstract; Presentation

City Behind Walls -- Identity versus Image an International Conference, Trencin, Slovakia Oct 2006  Presentation

Caerleon Tourism Association, Caerwent, Wales Nov  2006: Presentation

and at 'ARCHWAY' workshops in Piran Oct and Lucca Nov 2006.

 List of publications

The following is a list of DMB publications (in reverse date order) relevant to walled towns and tourism since the foundation of the Circle in 1991. Where available, links are provided to full text versions of these papers. In other cases please e-mail me and I will be able to advise you how to obtain a copy. 

  1. Bruce D. and O Creighton (2006) "Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns"  International Journal of Heritage Studies  in Vol 12 No 3 pp.234-254 . See abstract
  2. Bruce D.M. (2006) Book Review of “'Tourism in Destination Communities' Shalini Singh, Dallen J. Timothy and Ross K. Dowling (Editors) CABI Publishing Wallingford 2002, in Journal of Heritage Tourism 1:1 pp76-77  Draft TEXT
  3. Bruce D.M.(2005) "Opportunities for the development of fortification tourism: experience of European walled towns" ( English and Russian) in  Proceedings IKSUR, Kaliningrad .Full script draft of presentation 
  4. Bruce D.M. (2004) Case Study of Piran: establishing a sustainable 'gem city'  Holloway J.C. Marketing for Tourism, Pearsons pp445-454 FULL TEXT of draft
  5. Bruce D.M. 2002 Book Review of “Cultural Attractions and European Tourism” by Richards G. (Ed) 2001 (Wallingford CABI Publishing), in Visions of Sustainability: ATLAS Reflections 2002 page 74 FULL TEXT
  6. Bruce D M. 2001 Book Review “The Tourist-Historic City: Retrospect and Prospect of Managing the Heritage City” by G.J. Ashworth and J.E. Tunbridge (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 2000; 344pp) in Tourism Analysis Vol 6 No 3/4 FULL TEXT
  7. Bruce D.M. 2001 ‘Walled Towns as gem cities’ WTFC Symposium ‘Conclusiones’ Elvas Camara, Elvas Portugal (Also in Portuguese) FULL TEXT in English, including bibliography  
  8. Bruce D.M., Jackson M.J. and Serra Cantallops A. (2001) PREPARe: a model to aid the development of policies for less unsustainable tourism in historic towns Tourism and Hospitality Research: the Surrey Quarterly Review Volume 3.1 pp21-36. FULL TEXT
  9. Bruce D.M. and Jackson M.J. (1999) Measuring Sustainability in Tourism - Lessons from a study of Chepstow for other European walled towns, in Foley M., McGillivray D., McPherson G. (Eds.), Leisure, Tourism and Environment: Sustainability and Environmental Policies, LSA Publication No.50 (Part 1), Brighton, 141-155.
  10. Bruce D.M. and East M. (1999) Funding the Heritage: investigating European Funding for Tourism and Heritage 3-9 in Local Government management and Organisation - The Research Agenda, Bristol Business School Research Papers, UWE Bristol
  11. Bruce D.M. (1998) Tourism, Heritage and Local Pride, in Swarbrooke J.(Ed) Heritage, Culture and Community, ATLAS, Tilburg, 3-20. FULL TEXT (unillustrated -final draft)
  12. Bruce D.M. (1997), Towards a sustainability indicator for tourism transport, ‘Interdisciplinary Strands’ Journal of the Interdisciplinary Research Association No7 autumn, 4-8. 
  13. Bruce D.M. and Serra Cantallops A. (1996), The walled town of Alcúdia as a focus for an alternative tourism in Mallorca, in Briguglio L., Butler R., Harrison D. and Leal Filho W. (Eds.), Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Vol. II Case Studies, Pinter, London, 241-261. 
  14. Bruce D.M.(1995), Sustainable tourism in Chepstow and Conwy, Context: The Journal of the Association of Conservation Officers No 46, June. 13-14. FULLTEXT
  15. Bruce D M and Holloway J C (1994) ‘The Tourist Daze’ in Rowe J (Ed) ‘Streets Ahead’ Conference proceedings Bristol, UWE  FULLTEXT
  16. Bruce D.M., (1994), Tourism in Walled Towns, Tourism Management 15 (3), 228-30
  17. Bruce D.M. (1994) The Four Walled Towns Study in Turismo Sostenible en Cuidades Amuralladas, caeb,  Palma de Mallorca [also included was a Spanish translation of  Bruce et al. A Handbook of Good Practice for Sustainable Tourism in Walled Towns (El manual de las buenas practicas para el turismo sostenible en cuidades amuralladas) 
  18. Bruce D.M., Collins S., Laban,P. and Lloyd F. (1993) A Handbook of Good Practice for Sustainable Tourism in Walled Towns - Report to European Commission, Directorate General XXIII (Tourism) 92/C 51/16 (with appendices), Walled Towns Friendship Circle, Tenby.
  19. Jackson, M.J. and Bruce, D.M. (1992), Monitoring and Evaluating a Tourism Development Programme: A Study of Chepstow, in Johnson, P. and Thomas, B. (Eds) Perspectives on Tourism Policy, Mansell, London, 105-121.
 

  Other relevant Conference/Seminar papers and presentations by David Macaulay Bruce 

1. 2005 "Opportunities for the development of fortification tourism: experience of European walled towns” . Tourism Conference, Kaliningrad, Russia here is a  includes a script version of the paper (1.37Mb).  Russian language version of the abstract (translated by James Bruce)

2. 2005 "Living Walled Towns: perception and heritage' at Oxford University seminar 'City Walls and  City Identities AD 900-1650'  ( Presentation).

 2003 What is the sound of your town? WTFC 13th International Symposium Waterford, Ireland Presentation available "What does your town sound like?"

2 1996 The significance of walled towns in the 21st Century WTFC Annual Symposium Drosendorf : (Abstract in German/Synopsis auf deutsch)
3. 1995 Developing sustainable tourism policy for historic towns, Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group, London
4. 1993 Sustainability in Walled Towns WTFC Annual Symposium Loches (France)
5. 1992 Environmental and Tourism Analysis of Walled Towns WTFC Cittadella (Italy)

 Abstract

Bruce D. and O Creighton (2006) "Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns"  International Journal of Heritage Studies   Vol 12 No 3 pp 234-254 Copyright considerations means the full article is only available through the journal or by personal application to the authors: David.Bruce@uwe.ac.uk or o.h.creighton@exeter.ac.uk.

Abstract

Town walls have always played a critical role in shaping the identities and images of the communities they embrace. Today, the surviving fabric of urban defences and the townscapes they define are features of heritage holding great potential as cultural resources but ,in management terms, pose substantial challenges, practical and philosophical. Town walls can be conceptualised as a ‘dissonant’ form of heritage whose value is frequently contested between different interest groups and whose meanings are not static but can be re-written. Evidence is gathered from walled towns across Europe, including member towns of the WTFC (Walled Towns Friendship Circle) and inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Sites, to explore the cyclical biographies of town walls in their transformation from civic monuments, through phases of neglect, decay and destruction to their current status as cherished cultural resources. To explore this area of interface between archaeology and tourism studies, the varying attitudes of populations and heritage agencies to walled heritage are reviewed through examination of policies of conservation, preservation, presentation and restoration. Areas of commonality are thus identified.

Key words

Town walls; city walls; walled towns; dissonance; archaeology; heritage tourism

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a 'working' bibliography for walled towns tourism will also be available as a link here but the material is currently being updated.

 

There is an archive list of all towns with brief description and contact names dates from the mid 1990's: many contact details are now  out of date: THE OLD INFORMATION IS STORED FOR ARCHIVE PURPOSES.
  For more recent information, where available, contact WTFC

Views expressed in this website should not be taken as those of University of West of England, Bristol or the Walled Towns Friendship Circle. The author has no control over links referred to on this website but has taken every care to ensure that ensure that no defamatory or otherwise inappropriate material is to be found anywhere on this website. Working papers and other materials offered for download are done so in the spirit of academic exchange and remain copyright of the author(s).

© David Macaulay Bruce 2004-06