in part “delocalise” the heritage experience). Almost all these heritage assets have an “address”, or
can be linked to geographical coordinates. They may or may not retain their original function; be
publicly owned or accessible. They may generate flows, mostly physical flows of visitors and users,
and possibly also financial flows from their economic exploitation.
The tangible movable heritage generally consists of artefacts that are the product of human skill,
and have symbolic and/or aesthetic value. Among these, art objects that are in collections (stored in
private houses, galleries, museums, warehouses, libraries, etc.) and other culture-based goods which
may not have artistic value but a cultural significance that exceed their face value (places of
memory, parks and gardens and sights). Tangible movable heritage assets have no geographical
coordinates as they can be transferred to different places than the one in which they were physically
created; yet most of them acquire a “physical” location when they are stored or collected (though
not permanent: museums and galleries can be moved and their collections transferred). They have
spatial impacts because they generate flows and because they can be moved and displayed in
strategic locations. The following categories of tangible cultural heritage are considered in ESPON
1.3.3:
A 1 Cultural Heritage Sites
A 1 1 Monuments and Sites
A 1 2 Religious Buildings
A 1 3 Architectural Ensembles
A 1 4 Archaeological Sites
A 1 5 Historic Townscapes
A 1 6 Industrial Heritage
A 2 Man-made sites with specific significance (historical identity)
A 2 1 Parks and Gardens
A 2 2 Places of memory
A 2 3 Sights
A 3 Movable heritage
A 3 1 Art objects and collections (in galleries, museums, private houses, etc.)
B) INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
Intangible heritage assets do not have a “physical” address. They are immaterial cultural
expressions of a community (or of different communities sharing the same territory), of its
economic and social history. They thus provide a “symbolic” backbone for the very recognition of
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