Streets in Nablus old town: repositories for cultural identity and collective memory

Abstract

Although streets are empty spaces, they have a strong effect on one's perception of the city. They work as a key reference in space and time that influence people’s mental map and facilitate their orientation. Not only they may carry footprints of past civilizations, but also they provide a place for public activities, whether cultural or functional. This paper tries to search for the role of streets and its representation in the old town of Nablus, Palestine. It aims at understanding their role in keeping people´s collective memory and in representing cultural identity. To achieve this objective, a field survey was conducted. Together with a critical review of traditional Islamic cities’ street network, the paper wishes to better understand the street layout and its current dynamics. In Nablus old town, streets still trace the memory of the original Roman grid of the city, as well as showing later transformations to accommodate human needs throughout time. Mainly an Arab and Muslim neighborhood for the past centuries, its streets exhibit a hierarchy from public to private that represents not just the roles and functions of collective activity, but also the degrees of accessibility and respect for privacy. As in many other Islamic historical contexts, main streets provide a space for everyday life and collective memory, while secondary ones (or even private lanes) are left for the individual to develop and organize according to his private lifestyle patterns. The result shows that streets are a repository for cultural identity and collective memory, tracing back the city’s urban history, and fostering a comprehensive cultural ground for contemporary urban reconstruction and regeneration processes.