As tourism is blooming post the pandemic, churches in South Europe are receiving a high amount of visitors each day. This comes at odd with the mass-goers of the church. Churches are facing difficulty in keeping the church functioning for both groups. Contrary to this, churches in North Europe are facing a problem maintaining the buildings due to a decline in churchgoers. Both are working towards solutions to combat their unique problems.
Churches in South Europe
Tourists have been flooding to holiday destinations in Italy and Spain as summer vacations begin. After the last few years of travel restrictions tourists are eager to return to Europe to experience art and architecture. This is proving to be a real balancing act for religious sites.
The churches are struggling to accommodate religious churchgoers and revenue-generating tourists together at sacred sites. Religious tourism is one of the largest tourism markets in the current times. It is estimated that about 330 million people visit religious sites globally each year. The revenues from tourism aid these religious institutions in the maintenance of these sites. Thus, churches need to strike a delicate balance between the surge in religious tourism and their spiritual purpose.
Rev. Timothy Verdon, a priest and art historian who counsels the Diocese of Florence on tourism-related issues, expressed his worries, “What is already a large problem will become a nightmare if we don’t prepare ways to receive them.”
A common and useful strategy is to segregate worshippers and visitors. The churches hold services in discrete places, tourists are barred during mass times, and having different entries for them.
In spring, the Vatican opened a separate prayer entrance at St. Peter’s Basilica for the churchgoers to attend mass, confession, and adoration. This encouraged its faithful follower to visit the basilica, who otherwise have to endure hours-long queues with its thousands of daily visitors.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela restricts the visits during the four daily masses performed at the main altar. The security and priests vigilantly request the visitors to lower their voices and allow others to pray.
Another great Spanish religious institution combating this problem is the Cathedral of Barcelona. It receives 2.5 million visitors annually. Some of the measures enforced by the cathedral are – the required use of wireless audio guides to reduce noise, extra staffers to explain church policy to visitors and directing churchgoers to separate an area for mass or confession. The cathedral has further capped the number of daily visitors.
Churches in North Europe
North Europe has seen a steady decline in Christianity over the last half-century. Churches, chapels, and convents are abandoned and turning derelict as the number of churchgoers dwindles. The maintenance costs of these unused spaces are high and increasingly becoming a burden on churches and local municipalities.
In December 2018, the European Commission unveiled the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, which pushes for smart restoration and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings. The plan also encourages sharing and promotion of good practices. This has opened up new opportunities for locals, architects, and investors to rescue and reuse their heritage sites.
According to Trouw, in the Netherlands, one in five churches is no longer used as a place of worship. The country has 6900 churches out of which 1400 are used for other purposes in the last few years. Experts believe this number will only grow as the population ages and moves away from religion. A popular solution is to convert churches into hotels, nightclubs, bars, homes, museums, libraries and other cultural spaces.
Boekhandel Dominicanen is a famous landmark and bookshop in Maastricht. The bookshop is housed in a 13th-century church. This was consecrated in 1294 and was the first Gothic church in the Low Countries. In 2014 the church was converted into a bookshop. Some modifications were done to the interiors of the existing church however, the religious elements such as the Cross were untouched.
Another interesting example is O’neill’s Pub in North London’s upmarket Muswell Hill district. The pub is a former Presbyterian church built in 1902. The red-brick exteriors of the church and inner Lancet arches remain largely unchanged. However, the altar has been replaced by a well-equipped bar and the tables and slot machines are found in place of pews.
Heritage Management
Both these problems are unique in their own right. The answer to these problems is a sustainable approach to heritage management. It is important to understand the significance of sustainable heritage management as it helps develop a lucrative tourism industry. It also helps conserve the physical integrity of sites, promote and celebrate their historical and cultural values.