Empire; Estonia; Heritage Management; Manor; Museum; Palace; Russia; Touristic Services;

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85035805645&doi=10.1080%2f1755182X.2017.1405082&partnerID=40&md5=dea69929ebfc523367977c9916162777

10.1080/1755182X.2017.1405082

The historic manors of Gatchina and Schloss Fall provide excellent material for comparative study of heritage management and representation. Johan Huizinga’s theoretical framework for describing the ‘cultural game’ provides a stereoscopic vision of practices used at both sites to create desirable historical narratives and to sell them to tourists. Both museums have rich histories and offer a variety of visual attractions such as palaces and parks, however, we find the methods used to create intangible heritage as a marketable commodity to be more compelling. We argue that the history and stories behind the visual beauty are an inseparable part of the ‘historic play’ utilised at each site to involve tourists. Moreover, such ‘play’ is, to some extent, a key objective of heritage management in general and serious tasks such as restoration and research cannot be understood properly outside of this context.