Interpreting the stones: Turku Castle as narrative space
Abstract: The history of nationally important heritage sites is often represented as a rather straightforward process of chronological evolution. At Turku Castle in Finland, this narrative is literally set in stone in the restoration works between the late 19th and mid 20th century. These restoration processes resulted in spatial anachronisms, but the architectural decisions also facilitate the visitors’ experience of time and place at the castle. I am introducing new approaches from the fields of narrative and spatial theory, which can be applied in the analysis of the diverse and intertwining relationships of the past and the present in museal representations. The Turku Castle case proves that “inauthenticity” need not become a stumbling block.