PROBLEMS IN REVITALIZATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AND TOURISM SPATIAL PLANNING IN SERBIA– SPICER’S CASTLE, BEOČIN

Abstract

Facilities with a characteristic architectonical values, spatial culturalhistoric complexes, memorials and other cultural monuments, due to their cultural, artistic, historical and architectural significance, represent a very important element in the offer of a tourist destination. However, many such buildings, for various reasons (public neglection, unresolved property problems, institutional or legal constraines, lack of care of the locals, etc.) become devastated and lost. These valuable heritage sites, although some are under legal state protection as areas of special national cultural significance, continue to perish and are in need for urgent revitalization. One such example is the Spicer's castle in Beočin municipality. The castle was built by the order of the industrialist Ed Spicer, one of the owners of Beočin cement factory, according to the project of famous Hungarian architect Imre Steindl, between 1890-92. The castle was built in eclectic manner, as a specific mix of historic architectural styles, and in 1997. it is declared for the cultural monument of great national significance. Although formaly protected by the state, the castle is in the phase of neglect, physical deterioration and devastation (collapsing, material degradation, erosion of the field due to torrential stream, uncontrolled vegetation, anthropogenic waste, etc.). Municipality of Beočin has made several attempts to bring the castle to a purpose (library, hotel, museum, headquarters of the company for electronics, university center, cultural center etc.), or to rent it, in order to revitalize the monument, but the process was never completed. One of the proposals of revitalization of the castle is the reconstruction of the original castle into a tourist complex. In practice, there are many examples of tourism spatial planning as an element of the revitalization process of the historical buildings. It transforms the original complex by making it equiped, reshaped and restructured (infrastructure and superstructure), with the aim of making it appealing for tourist use. However, if done unprofessionally, and renovated in a random, haphazard or arbitrary way, in the sole discretion of the investor, it leads to a distortion of the basic values of cultural monument. In Serbia, it is still difficult to point out to a heritage site that it is fully adapted for tourist use, as an efficient and adequate planning system in revitalization of cultural spaces, with their conversion into tourist areas, along with minimizing the negative impacts and their degradation is still missing.