Heritagization of Christian Orthodox painted churches: in search of visitor agency and the dialectics of heritage management at Cypriot world heritage sites

Drawing on Critical Heritage Theory and Critical Realism, the thesis delves into the dissonance and contestation that emerges during the management, curation, and conservation of Cypriot historic religious sites. The latter opens a window for the examination of how policymakers, clergy, and visitors negotiate the materiality of religion. The thesis explores the cultural processes hidden behind the material-focused and expert-driven, ‘Authorised Heritage Discourse’ in an effort to unpack the agendas, interests, and experiences of social agents involved in the heritagization process. Drawing on the various conceptualisations of authenticity (objective, constructivist, postmodern) that expand the ways in which individuals form connections with heritage, the thesis aims to deepen our understanding of how discursive and institutional structures and their mechanisms influence the conservation of Cypriot rural religious sites. In doing so, the thesis fleshes out embedded power relationships and shifting ideologies and seeks to identify areas of convergence and divergence between policymakers, church’s representatives, and heritage users.
The thesis draws on Smith’s theory of Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD), providing a lens to understand how heritage users reproduce and challenge hegemonic discourses. To overcome issues of nominalisation and reductionism associated with AHD, the thesis draws on (critical) realist social ontology. The originality of this study is that it provides the empirical framework to examine the dialectic relationship between the discursive (AHD) and the extra-discursive conditions that constitute AHD-led practices, the dominant form of conservation in Cyprus.
The research is structured as a multi-method qualitative comparative case study examining two Cypriot UNESCO churches, St. Nicholas and St. John, inactive and active worshipping sites. The thesis builds on primary data, including semi-structured interviews with stakeholders (16) and visitors (40) and archival documents. Findings demonstrate that over the years, a centralised decision-making system has been maintained in Cyprus that limits polyvocality perpetuating AHD-driven strategies (i.e., ‘preserve as found’ strategy). However, evidence of reconciliation between AHD and living tradition was found, challenging the current assumption that considers objective authenticity (anti-restoration) and living religious tradition as antithetic practices. The study also found that visitors demonstrate higher levels of immersion in a church that looks both ‘active’ and ‘worn.’ Suggestions are provided for improving the conservation/management and tourism engagement strategies.