The border that persists even if the wall does not exist

There are elements in our cities that take on symbolic meanings for people. Yeung and Savage (1996) identify two types of these elements: tangible ones (e.g. squares, monuments, buildings, etc.), that determine the legibility of the city (Lynch, 1960), and intangible ones, which constitute the urban symbolism and, consequently, the figurability of the city (Lynch, 1960). All these elements acquire a further emblematic meaning when they are ancient, by virtue of their historical significance (Pretto and Battello, 2015), and when they are located in the city centre where the essence of socio-urban identity tends to condense (Stoiculescu, 2012). But cities are constantly transforming and even the meaning and the importance that people attach to these elements can change. I conducted a research study in Trento, an ‘old city’ in Northern Italy which, over the centuries and in the last decades, has been facing transformations of various nature: architectural, economic, political, social and urban. Given these transformations, the aim of the study was to investigate which elements of the city centre were significant in the perception of the residents and if this perception changed during last decades. My presentation focuses on a particular finding regarding the perception of the borders of the historic centre: through the collection of 421 mental maps and semi-structured interviews, it emerged that the old city walls – broken down over 150 years ago - represent still today the borders of the city centre. Moreover, analysing specific characteristics of the respondents which, according to the literature, can influence the perception of urban elements, it emerged that the perception of this intangible border is transmitted both between generations of residents and between old and new residents. So, a destroyed tangible monument remain still today in the people’s minds as an intangible border. What effect will the walls we build today have in the future?