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Abstract

The crisis in values and the political-economic problems that plague modern-day society affect, among other things, the topic of architectural heritage protection and enhancement. Given its role as a historic trace of thousand-year-old civilisations, cultural heritage has often been liable to exploitation for religious, political as well as cultural purposes. For this reason, traditional conservation instruments are inadequate if we want to tackle modern-day circumstances, and those who work in the field of conservation should now play an important role not only in the concrete protection of this heritage (through conservation, maintenance, reuse and so on), but also in finding new cultural strategies, so as to promote a new way of understanding cultural heritage in contemporary communities. To this end, an informed culture of communication, intended as a widespread, innovative way of enjoying cultural heritage, could be a useful instrument for its protection. This paper puts forward a comparison between the traditional way of communicating cultural heritage and a new approach that not only involves the physical use of cultural assets, but also the understanding of their identity and history (that is to say, their material values), through intangible technological systems of communication. This paper also puts forward a reflection on the risks involved in this new approach, which involves digital and virtual instruments of communication, in properly drafted conservation policies and the necessity that these urgent changes be managed by experts in cultural heritage conservation.