Leaving behind homeland, customs and habits pave the way to a process where collective memories are eroded. Enculturation helping to connect remembrance with resilience is diluted by relocation. Abandoned built legacies witness the loss of intangible cultural heritage, framing the invisible disaster of identity disappearance. Restoring and safeguarding memorial places is too often outdated, living in the past, lacking the cognitive frame allowing a continuity leading to a common vision of values. Tangible and intangible heritage are intertwined in such a way that abandoned walls acquire a symbolic value, echoing a forgotten sense of belonging. Places of lost memories become “in-between” locations, beyond the limits of time, fractured between museification and remembrance. “Is the past a foreign country?” refers to a novel of L.P. Hartley and builds on an ethical obligation: a common acknowledgment to see the past as a legacy to face the uncertainty of our future.
