Managing military heritagescapes in rural settings: two cases from Sweden and Italy

The chapter explores processes of demilitarisation of fortified sites, and how they can be developed after the military functions have become obsolete. What happens with the heritage of these places during such processes? In what ways do the pointing out of heritage influence how the site develops? The chapter discusses these questions using the isle of Enholmen located just outside of the port Slite on Gotland, Sweden. Slite has been of strategic interest to the Swedish military in periods since the late 17th century. Enholmen has been considered heritage for a long time, but military presence has previously prevented the development of the site into an attraction. The case will discuss how heritage status may be dependent on the military history of the site, and what kind of heritage is identified and valued here. The site is examined using the methodology of heritagescape, comparing Enholmen’s development with the one of Fort Belvedere in Trento, Italy. Heritagescape offers a way of analysing the constituent parts of a heritage site and to understand the particularities of sites by comparing them.