Abstract

SANTOS, Jorge; MACEDO, Sofia Costa; NEVES, José Soares  and  MIRANDA, Ana Paula. Is built heritage averse to statistics? National Monuments and public access. SOCIOLOGIA ON LINE [online]. 2022, n.30, pp.30-58.  Epub Feb 25, 2023. ISSN 1647-3337.  https://doi.org/10.30553/sociologiaonline.2022.30.2.

This article discusses the issue of using national official statistics to measure public access to immovable cultural heritage in Portugal. The methodology is quantitative, with recourse to a survey focused on the following dimensions: access, visitors, valences, personal and activities, answered by the responsible person in charge of each National Monument (NM) surveyed. The fieldwork took place in 2019 and 2020 and collected data for the period 2017 to 2019. The empirical basis consists of visitable NM (n=172 in 2019 and n=166 in 2020). The results obtained are presented in two plans: the characterization of the surveyed NM and the volume and evolution of their visitors. Contrary to what the extended absence of national statistics on built cultural heritage would suggest, this is not a domain averse to its measurement. If this is can be appointed for the entire universe of built cultural heritage, very heterogeneous from various points of view, it is demonstrated that a relevant part, the visitable NM, can, and should be subject to regular surveys as in other cultural equipment and activities.

Keywords : cultural heritage sites; cultural public policies; visitors of national monuments; cultural official statistics..

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